Children who are entitled to free school meals will start receiving supermarket vouchers to buy food while staying at home during the coronavirus lockdown.

They will be given tokens worth £15-a-week and valid for use at supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer.

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said no child should have to go hungry due to measures to stop the spread of coronavirus.

The government announced their scheme to tackle food poverty among children nearly two weeks ago, following the decision to shut all schools as the UK battles its Covid-19 outbreak.

Around 1.3 million pupils are currently eligible for free meals at schools.

Headteachers had called for the vouchers to be introduced as soon as possible over concerns families were struggling to get the food they needed while children were forced to stay at home.

The education secretary said that while some schools were making their own plans to ensure pupils continued to be fed, he hoped most would join the scheme.

The vouchers are worth more than the £11.50 currently paid to schools for the cost of providing free meals, as families do not bulk buy in the same way as school caterers.

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Mr Williamson invited schools across England to join the scheme, and said the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could also sign up.

“I really hope that this is something taken up by most schools. I think this will be a real big help to so many families,” he said.

Once a school has joined the scheme, the tokens will be sent out by email directly to the eligible families by the Department for Education’s supplier, Edenred.

Alternatively, for those families which do not have internet access, the school can claim them on their behalf and send out paper copies in the post.

The education secretary said: “What we are wanting to do is just give schools that extra bit of support, give families that extra bit of support.”​