Hamed Chapman
The Mayor of London has announced a historic £130 million emergency scheme to help families with the spiralling cost of living by ensuring that every primary schoolchild in the British capital, London, will receive free school meals in the next academic year starting in September.
Sadiq Khan, who received free school meals himself as a child, is stepping in after the government has repeatedly refused to make similar provisions nationally despite the extreme financial pressure on households due to the soaring rises in the cost of living exacerbated by Brexit.
“This will save families hundreds of pounds over the year, ensuring parents aren’t worrying about how they’re going to feed their children,” Khan said, making the facility part of his final budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group for 2023–24 ahead of next year’s mayoral elections.
“It will also guarantee every primary school student a healthy, nutritious meal, meaning they don’t go hungry in the classroom and can better concentrate on their studies.”
The unprecedented move will help around 270,000 primary school children in the capital and save families an estimated £440 per child across the year. Currently, the government offers restrictive eligibility criteria for free school meals to only households on universal credit earning less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including benefits), regardless of the number of children in the family.
The Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, said that children in the capital face “some of the highest levels of deprivation anywhere in the country” and that the prospect of saving hundreds of pounds will be welcome news for families.
“We cannot consider ourselves a modern and progressive society if the most vulnerable among us are forced to go without basic food and nourishment. School should be a place where children can learn and grow, not worry about where their next hot meal is going to come from,” the bishop said.
The mayor’s intervention was widely welcomed, including by Anna Taylor, the executive director of The Food Foundation, who described the initiative as “a monumental step forward for safeguarding children’s diets, well-being, and learning across the capital.”
“However, outside of London, hundreds of thousands of children living in poverty still don’t qualify for a Free School Meal. Central Government must now honour its levelling up commitment by investing in Free School Meal expansion for every community in the upcoming budget,” Taylor warned.
(Photo credit: rawpixel/CC0)
