Boyd Swinburn: Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair urges schools to expand free school lunch program

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

A group of health experts is urging the Government to rapidly expand free school lunches.

The program is restricted to schools with the poorest 25 percent of students, but the call is to make that 50 percent.

Health Coalition Aotearoa's Boyd Swinburn says one in five children are in households that can't regularly put food on the table.

"Those children are actually spread across all the schools, especially in the middle deciles. At the moment, picking up the bottom 25 percent of schools doesn't get most of these kids that are suffering food hardship."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.