Only yesterday I exchanged messages with a friend who moved from London to Warrington last year. She has found it quite shocking how anti government people are, and how people feel decisions are made with only London in mind.
The school dinners situation is one I saw first hand when I ran youth clubs in East London before moving to Paris. Half the time kids went hungry as parents didn't have the means to feed them, and half the time it was because parents chose to spend the money on the wrong things. The kids would then follow their parent's example and if they had money, it would go towards a can of coke and sweets/chocolate. We spent quite a lot of time in youth clubs, cooking meals altogether, so the kids could see how to cook from scratch, instead of just sticking a pizza in the oven/paying for a takeaway.
As is so often the case, what is needed is a little bit of education and a willingness to learn. It is possible to eat well for not much, but it requires time to prepare, and knowing where, and sometimes when, you can buy food cheaply.
On that note, I'm off to the market, where I can get fruit and veg for a family of four, for a week, for around €15 (£13.60).