Zane Powles is the primary school teacher from Grimsby, England, who spent the spring and early summer of 2020 walking his school's lunches to the children who could not come in. Over about 17 weeks of the Covid-19 lockdown he delivered some 7,500 packed lunches by hand, covering roughly 600 miles on foot and never taking a day off. On each doorstep he also checked that the children were safe and well, and dropped off their homework.
Here is how the daily round worked, why school meals mattered so much during lockdown, and what the story says about child poverty in the UK.
Who is Zane Powles?
Powles, 48 at the time and a father of three, is assistant headteacher at Western Primary School in Grimsby, a fishing port town in North East Lincolnshire. He works with pupils in the school's behaviour unit, children who often need an adult to keep a closer eye on them than most.
He was already known locally before the pandemic. In 2019 a parent nominated him for an Inspirational Primary School Teacher award, which he won. His headteacher gave him the nickname "Captain Covid" for setting up the school's lockdown systems and making sure the safety guidance was followed.
Seventeen weeks of daily rounds
When schools in England closed to most pupils in March 2020, children entitled to free school meals suddenly lost what, for some of them, was the most reliable meal of the day. Western Primary decided to keep feeding them, and Powles took on the delivery.
His routine barely changed for four months. He arrived at school around 7am, helped pack about 85 lunches, loaded them into bags and a rucksack and set off. The round took about two hours and covered around 7.5 miles, and by his own estimate he carried about four tons of food over the whole period.
Photos of his rounds show him weighed down by bags, and at least once wearing a pink tutu and bright socks to make the children laugh. Families put up posters in their windows thanking him, and on the final day neighbours and parents came out to applaud.
More than a sandwich: checking in on every child
The food was only part of the job. Teachers knew that lockdown hid vulnerable children from view: no one at school could see who looked hungry, tired or frightened. A daily knock on the door gave Powles a chance to see every pupil on his list in person.
He explained his worry simply: I needed to know if they were safe, if they were healthy, and if they had access to food.
With classes in England largely moved online, he also used the visits to drop off worksheets and collect finished work, which kept children without laptops or reliable internet connected to their learning. The pupils were, he admitted, a lot less keen on the homework than on the lunches.
His last delivery came on Friday 17 July 2020, when the school closed for the summer. He described the months as relentless and exhausting, but well worth it.
Why free school meals became national news in 2020
In England, children from low-income families can get a free school lunch. During the 2020 closures the government ran a national voucher scheme, and many schools, like Western Primary, made their own arrangements to get food to families directly.
The big question was the summer holidays, when free meals normally stop. On 15 June 2020, Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, who has spoken about relying on free school meals as a child, published an open letter urging the government to keep support going. The next day, 16 June, the government reversed course and agreed to fund food support over the summer. Rashford continued campaigning that autumn, was made an MBE, and his petition to end child food poverty passed one million signatures.
Stories like Powles's helped show what the policy debate meant on the ground: a hungry child is not an abstract number to the teacher who sees them every day. For a similar story of volunteers feeding people through a crisis, read about the Australian Islamic Centre volunteers who cooked for firefighters.
How many children in the UK live in poverty?
Older reports often said that a third of UK children live in poverty. The latest figures are a little lower but still large. The Child Poverty Action Group, using the government's Households Below Average Income data, puts the number at about 4 million children, or 27 per cent, roughly eight in a typical class of 30. That measure is relative poverty after housing costs, which matters because rent and energy bills take a big share of low incomes.
For families in that position, a free school lunch is not a treat but a real saving, and losing it during closures or holidays can push already stretched budgets over the edge. That is why holiday food programmes and school breakfast clubs continue to draw so much attention.
After the last delivery
Powles did not plan to stop when the lunches did. He announced a sponsored bike ride of about 1,500 miles around the UK's castles, including Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin and Cardiff and the Tower of London, to raise money for charities including Meals and More, which helps children living in poverty. North East Lincolnshire Council also honoured him for the deliveries.
His own summary of why he did it is the line people remember: We should never give up on children. Having a tough upbringing is never their fault.
The practical lesson for schools and communities is that small, regular contact can matter as much as big programmes. A familiar face at the door every morning told dozens of families that someone was looking out for them, at a time when many felt very alone.
Sources: Good News Network: UK teacher delivered 7,500 packed lunches to pupils during lockdown (29 July 2020); Grimsby Telegraph: Hero teacher Zane Powles; Wikipedia: Marcus Rashford; Child Poverty Action Group: Child poverty facts and figures. Photos: SWNS, via Good News Network.
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