The Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

Margaret McMillan Margaret McMillan (20 July 1860 – 27 March 1931) was a nursery school pioneer and lobbied for the 1906 Provision of School Meals Act. Working in deprived districts of London, notably Deptford, and Bradford, she agitated for reforms to ...

and Fred Jowett were members of the School Board which introduced

free school meal A school meal or school lunch (also known as hot lunch, a school dinner, or school breakfast) is a meal provided to students and sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the middle or beginning of the school day. Countries around the world ...

s in Bradford. This was actually illegal and the School Board could have been forced to end this service. McMillan and Jowett tried to persuade Parliament to introduce legislation which encouraged all education authorities to provide free school meals for children. McMillan argued that if the state insists on compulsory education, it must take responsibility for the proper nourishment of school children. A report published in 1889 indicated that over 50,000 pupils in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

alone were attending school "in want of food". Other social studies, such as Charles Booth's ''Life and Labour of the People of London, 1899-1903'' and

Seebohm Rowntree Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, CH (7 July 1871 – 7 October 1954) was an English sociological researcher, social reformer and industrialist. He is known in particular for his three York studies of poverty conducted in 1899, 1935, and 1951. The fi ...

's ''Poverty: A Study of Town Life in York, 1901'', found that nearly a third of the population and cities studied were living in poverty. The 1904 ''Report into Physical Deterioration'' followed the large rejection of men from service in the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

, as they were malnourished. The Bill became law over the objection of the House of Lords.

References

Education in England Government-provided school meals in the United Kingdom United Kingdom Education Acts United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1906 1906 in education {{UK-statute-stub