Last Wednesday the government voted against extending free school meals to vulnerable children. Manchester United and England striker Marcus Rashford has been campaigning for an end to food poverty throughout 2020 and in the summer wrote an open letter to the government asking them to extend free school meal vouchers, as families who struggle to make ends meet often rely on school to provide their children with an additional square meal. The government initially refused but after significant public pressure decided to make a U-turn. As the Christmas half term approached there had been calls from Rashford and other campaigners to extend free school meals throughout the holiday. In characteristically cruel fashion (after a tax payer subsidised lunch despite their near £80k salaries) Tory MP's voted against feeding underprivileged children. MP's who voted against helping hungry children included the Minister for Children Vicky Ford. Thankfully the countries community spirit seems to have outmatched the Conservative parties cruelty (despite voting for them) as up and down the country restaurants, bakeries and other hospitality establishments stepped up to pledge their help to struggling families. 

 At Sludge Magazine we'd like to do our bit too. In terms of the half term holidays, given the  short time frame between the parliamentary decision and the start of half term, there is very little we can do and unfortunately what will be will be. But food poverty isn't just a half term issue. 1 in 8 people in the UK are living in poverty and a quarter of those who regularly go without meals are children. Charity and subsided meals will never be an adequate antidote for compassionate and competent leadership, which the nation comprehensively voted against in electing Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. Unfortunately it's all we have now. So we contacted two of our favourite contributors who were willing to auction off some artwork to raise money for Fareshare's work going forward. As food poverty is not going away anytime soon. 

The average cost of a school meal in the U.K. is £2.30 and this is the amount the government provides per meal per head to schools. So we’re asking for minimumdonations of £2.30 to enter the raffle.This year has been packed with bad news so Bllackline and Martyn have picked one one of the most joyous images from their catalogues.

Enter the raffle via Martyn’s PayPal pool

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