TWO university students from Worcester have provided packed lunches for children in response to the government’s decision to not extend free school meals to this half term.

Molly Simons, a student at the University of Birmingham, and Jazmine Millward, a student at the University of Worcester, both work at the Tesco store in Warndon Villages and announced on their Facebook profiles that they were providing free packed lunches for children who would go hungry during the Autumn half term.

The 21-year-olds had been given permission by their managers to use the store’s kitchen and facilities to produce the lunches in a safe and sanitary environment.

The lunches included sandwiches, a packet of crisps, piece of fruit, yoghurt, small treat and choice of a bottle of water or a flavoured drink.

Molly said: “It’s quite sad really that it has taken the efforts of Marcus Rashford and him pushing the idea to highlight the issue of child hunger and child poverty – it’s obvious that is has been an issue for many years and it should have been the government to push this idea forward."

Worcester MP Robin Walker was one of the 322 conservative MPs to vote against the Labour motion to extend the free meals offer over school holidays until Easter.

Molly said: “Our MP was one of the many who voted against extending free school meals and if the government are not going to provide meals then we will do it ourselves for those in need.”

On Facebook, Molly and Jazmine posted pictures of themselves preparing and delivering the lunches to children. They wrote: “A very successful day with tons of free school lunches distributed throughout Worcester. A huge £600 raised towards this. £450 on food and essentials that will be given to Worcester Foodbank alongside a £100 voucher with the rest of the donations that we had.”