ALMOST £200,000 has been splashed on school meal vouchers, say council bosses.

Southend Council says the investment has supported local schools and local families through the initial national lockdown period.

In addition, the council will fund free schools meals through the February half-term via the winter COVID grant scheme funded by the Government and announced before Christmas.

Anne Jones, cabinet member for children and learning, says: “With the uncertainty surrounding return to schools before Christmas, the council took the initiative and committed to support schools and families by funding free schools meals for the first two weeks of term.

"We also took the right decision to use Wonde, a well-established company that runs a simple supermarket voucher scheme."

It comes after shocking images shared online showed small portions were sent to some struggling families as footballer Marcus Rushford keeps pushing Government on the issues.

Ms Jones added: “This action has been welcomed by schools and local people and I am very pleased we have delivered on that over these past two weeks.

“Residents won’t need to do anything – schools will again be reaching out to those families and households who are currently already being supported.

Marcus Rashford and a group of celebrity chefs and campaigners have called on Boris Johnson to review the government's free school meals policy.

The group, including Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tom Kerridge, have written to the PM asking him to "fix" the system long-term.

They called for a strategy to help "end child food poverty" before the summer holidays.

No 10 said "no child will ever go hungry" because of the Covid pandemic.

The council has also provided the Southend Emergency Fund with £25,000 of its own funding and a further £39,000 from its winter COVID grant – the fund has grants of up to £3,000 to give out to organisations working with clinically extremely vulnerable people and vulnerable families.

For help call the Council’s Coronavirus helpline on 01702 212497.