It won’t cost much to make free school meals a universal right | Larry Elliott

A new push to offer free school meals across the globe won't end world hunger but it's a very good start

During the pandemic the Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford turned food into a hot political issue in the UK with his campaign for every child in a low-income family to be guaranteed a free school meal.

Since then, things have moved on. The problems facing low-income families - not just in Britain but everywhere - have worsened owing to rising global food prices. Consumers in the western economies have seen the cost of their weekly shop rise sharply. Food bank use in Britain has surged as a result of a cost-of-living crisis that has seen grocery bills rise by almost a fifth in the past year.