This week hundreds of schools across England will be taking part in celebrating National School Meals Week, which mark the biggest healthy awareness eating week aimed at children.

The free school meals programme is a £1.2billion programme introduced by the Liberal Democrats in Government. £150 million of capital funding was also made available to support local authorities in improving kitchen and dining facilities in order to provide free school meals.

Commenting Cllr George Butcher  said, “Eating a healthy and nutritious meal at school has been proven to help children do better academically and we have made great progress in ensuring more and more pupils all over the country can enjoy these benefits.

“With the help of hard-working teachers and staff, thousands of infant children in Stroud are now getting a free healthy meal at lunch time – saving parents a huge £400 a year.

“This week celebrates that progress and provides a chance to show off the creativity and talent of our hard-working school cooks and catering staff as well as saying thank you for all their hard work.”

Cllr George Butcher added, “I am proud of the role the Liberal Democrats played in first introducing free school lunches and then protecting them from Theresa May.

“We will now fight to ensure the Conservatives do not reduce school funding.”