Hundreds of children reliant on free school meals in Milton Keynes have been fed by a church this half term.
St Mark's have run the lunch club in four schools across the town this week and are hoping to feed up to 300 pupils and their families. One in five children in Milton Keynes live in poverty, according to the Vital Signs report produced by a local community group, and vicar Paul Oxley said his vision was there would be none.
In an interview with Christian Today he said the church wanted there to be "no child who has a false start in life because of poverty". It has been suggested that pupils who start the day hungry finish primary education effectively two years behind their peers in terms of ability and five years behind when they complete secondary school.
"I don't think you can untie this from our mission," said Oxley. "The church is supposed to be doing this kind of stuff.
"Faith is useless if it doesn't do something – if it doesn't propel you into action."
Pupils eligible for free school meals are fed during the term time but when the holidays arrive many families struggle to feed their children. Along with Make Lunch, a network of churches looking to fill the gap, St Mark's provides a free lunch every day of half term for children who would normally get free meals.
"The idea is if you are a child that relies on breakfast and lunch in school and you struggle to eat in holidays then we will be in your schools and you can come down and get lunch," said Oxley.
The programme started in one school last year but has exploded with more headteachers requesting the church run a similar project in their school. This week they worked in four schools and are hoping to be in another four next half term.
But Oxley said the lunches were like giving a paracetamol to someone with a broken leg. He called on the Church as an institution to take a lead on the issue. There are decisions that are "unnecessary and unfair to women and children" and the church needs to stop them, he said.
"But in the meantime, no one is going to go hungry on our watch."
The church invites the extended families of all the pupils and everyone sits down together, including local charity volunteers, to have lunch. "Food is a great leveller," said Oxley in an interview with the Church of England's 'stories worth sharing' podcast.
"It doesn't matter who you are when you get the call, 'pass the ketchup please'."
Christian Today spoke to Oxley shortly before figures were released that showed benefit sanctions directly forced people to use food banks. The study from Oxford University found a "robust link" between an increase in the number of sanctions handed out and the rising numbers using food banks.
Asked about the surge in people going hungry, Oxley said: "In an ideal world there would be no need for this.
"But in terms of who it should be who turns up to show love to those who don't get love shown to them much – the Church should be first in that queue."
