1906 Education (Provision of Meals) Act
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The 1906 General Election elected a Liberal government committed to social reform and 'New Liberalism'. Fred Jowett, the Labour MP for Bradford was elected to the House of Commons for the first time. Jowett's maiden speech was on the subject of school meals and eventually managed to convince Parliament that hungry children had trouble learning and in 1906 it passed the Provision of School Meals Act. This act permitted local authorities to provide school meals. However, local authorities were slow to respond to this legislation and by 1939 less than 50% were providing this service.
Margaret McMillan and Fred Jowett were members of the School Board which introduced free school meals 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 alone were attending school "in want of food". Other social studies, such as Charles Booth's Life and Labour of the London Poor, 1899-1903 and Seebohm Rowntree's Poverty: A Study of Town Life in York, 1901. They 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, as they were malnourished.
