Morrisons is offering free meals to hard-up families in their cafes

Struggling families will be able to get a free meal from Morrisons in any of their cafes after the supermarket announced a special half-term offer.

With the cost-of-living crisis pushing up prices on many basics, a growing number of people have been forced to rely on food banks.

But a free hot meal – in the shape of a jacket potato with baked beans – will be available to anyone who ‘asks for Henry’ in any of the 397 Morrisons cafes across the UK.

More than 160,000 free meals will be available to the public from today until 6 November, with no questions asked to whoever wants one.

The offer has been launched in conjunction with Heinz with the phrase named after the company's founder.

Sian Whittle, category director of Morrisons Cafes, said that they are offering free meals as they “know that our customers are under real financial pressure at the moment”.

Four in 10 people claiming universal credit skipped meals over the summer to keep up with rising costs, according to a recent survey for the Trussell Trust.

Some 41% of people receiving the benefit skipped meals over the past three months, while 38% of respondents said they had gone a whole day without eating, or just had one meal, in the last month because they could not afford to buy enough food.

The charity said its network of food banks is providing more help to people compared to before the coronavirus pandemic – the equivalent of a parcel being provided every 13 seconds.