Zayn Malik Appeals to the British PM for Free School Meals

Pakistani-born singer and former One Direction member, Zayn Malik, advocated on behalf of school children when he wrote a letter to the newly elected British Prime Minister to provide children living in poverty free food at educational institutes.

Sharing his letter on social media, Malik stated that he wrote the letter to help tackle the impending issue of malnutrition in schools, faced by students who cannot afford healthy meals on their own.

Appealing to the new PM, the singer wrote that as of September 2022, more than 4 million children faced malnutrition and 0.8 million children were also deprived of 'free meals' provided in schools.

He continued in his letter that 'these children are deprived of necessary attention while some of them are forced to steal food from school canteens due to hunger. This is because they do not have enough money to buy food.'

"They are also feeling shame which is directly impacting their physical and mental health.

"I know what that shame feels like, I have seen it first-hand, as growing up in Bradford, I relied on free school meals."

Addressing the crisis, the singer emphasized the need to provide children living in poverty these essential ‘free meals’ so that they do not suffer from a lack of concentration, stress, or mental and physical problems because they do not have access to food.

Following Marcus Rashford and Jamie Oliver, he is the latest famous name to support free school meals.

A previous statement by Oliver stated that investing in free school meals would boost productivity and benefit the country’s economy.

In addition to teaching staff, governors and school trustees, the campaign has the support of over a million teaching organizations.