A government-ordered review has recommended another 1.5m children should be given free school meals and poorer youngsters should also be fed during the school holidays.

Led by Leon restaurant chain founder Henry Dimbleby, the National Food Strategy described the country’s diet as a slow-motion disaster and warned that the poorest children risked being left behind.

The report said: “One of the miserable legacies of Covid-19 is likely to be a dramatic increase in unemployment and poverty, and therefore hunger.”

Currently, only children from households earning less than £7,400 before benefits are eligible for free dinners.

Swindon headteacher Karen Pyman this morning said the extension of free school meals to more children would be a “useful thing”.

The Millbrook Primary School headteacher told BBC Wiltshire: “We’ve seen quite a lot of extra children become entitled to free school meals over the course of the pandemic, which means that employment is becoming more difficult for people and those people who are living say just above the line where they are eligible have dropped under it and are finding things more difficult now.”

Being given a hot lunch every day had a “real impact” on children, she said. The school gives free breakfast bagels to all its pupils every morning.