Kathmandu, December 17. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is set to distribute food for the hungry children in the United Kingdom (UK). The UN body which works for children around the world, has said that children in UK are worst hit by the pandemic after the Second World War.

According to an article in The Guardian, a poll in May found out that around 2.4 million children have been living in food insecure households whereas 900,000 children had registered for free school meals. UNICEF has pledged a 25,000 euro grant to a project named ‘School Food Matters’. The money is said to be used to supply 18,000 breakfast meals across 25 schools in UK, which are severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Stephanie Slater, founder of the project said, “We’re so grateful to Unicef for providing this timely funding. The response to our summer breakfast boxes programme has shown us that families are really struggling and many were facing the grim reality of a two-week winter break without access to free school meals and the indignity of having to rely on food banks to feed their children.”

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader said, “The fact that Unicef is having to step in to feed our country’s hungry children is a disgrace and Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak should be ashamed. We are one of the richest countries in the world. Our children should not have to rely on humanitarian charities that are used to operating in war zones and in response to natural disasters.”

Although many other members of political parties have criticized the government, a government spokesperson has said that they are committed in supporting lowest paid families and has separated a 170 million euro grant so that children are well fed during the winter months as well.