London pupils celebrate free school meals as more than 17million meals already provided this term, thanks to Mayor’s unprecedented funding

Mayor has provided a historic £135m to deliver free school meals to state primary school children in the capital

Up to 287,000 children across London are benefitting, with 1.4m meals funded each week to support families through the cost of living crisis

A class at Mandeville Primary School in Hackney today received a special lunch from chefs BOSH! after a Year 5 pupil won a challenge celebrating free school meals

More than 17million free school meals have been funded for state primary school children in the capital this school term, thanks to historic £135m funding from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

The unprecedented funding has helped up to 287,000 children each day since the start of September and today a class at Mandeville Primary School in Hackney were visited by celebrity chefs BOSH! to help prepare and enjoy a special lunch in celebration of free school meals.

City Hall’s ‘Love your lunch’ challenge asked primary schoolchildren across the capital to create a piece of work in any medium along the theme ‘The best thing about school lunches is...'. Year 5 pupil Ishall’s poem championing the benefits of free school meals wowed the judges and scooped the top prize – lunch for the whole class, courtesy of the famed chefs.

State primary school children across the capital have been enjoying free school meals since the start of the school year in September thanks to the Mayor’s funding.

An estimated 1.4m meals each week are being funded after the Mayor stepped in to help support families as they struggle with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Families in every borough in the capital are saving upwards of £440 per child across the school year.

It’s the first time ever that free school meals have been available to all pupils in every year of state-funded primary schools, special schools and pupil referral units in the capital. Children in years 3 to 6 in primary school had previously only received free school meals if they lived in households on universal credit earning less than £7,400 a year – after tax and not including benefits, and regardless of the number of children in the family.

Sadiq’s free school meals funding is the latest programme from the Mayor to support Londoners with the cost-of-living crisis. That includes investing £3.46bn into building the genuinely affordable homes Londoners need and £400m on skills and employment programmes to support Londoners to find more secure work, as well as more than £80m to help those struggling with the rising cost of living to tackle fuel poverty, supporting private renters, connecting Londoners to welfare advice and tackling food insecurity. The Mayor has also provided an emergency funding package of more than £3.5m to help provide around 10m free meals during school holidays and at weekends to low-income Londoners struggling with the spiralling cost of living over the next year.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m delighted that we have already funded more than 17m free school meals this term with hundreds of thousands of London’s primary school children benefitting every day. I know from personal experience how important these meals are and what a difference receiving a free nutritious meal can make to young lives, which is why I stepped forward with this unprecedented funding to help families during the cost-of-living crisis. The fantastic poem written by Ishall at Mandeville Primary School truly sums up the importance of these meals and I’m delighted that her class has today enjoyed a special meal that they have helped to prepare too. I will continue to do all I can to support families as build a better London for all.”

Louise Nichols, Executive Headteacher of LEAP federation of schools in Hackney, said: “Everyone at Mandeville Primary School is delighted that Ishall has won this great prize for her class. We think Ishall described very well how children feel about lunches in our schools. It has made such a difference to our school communities to have school meals paid for by the London Mayor this year and families are grateful that it is saving them so much money.  For example one family I know with three children now have upwards of £1,500 extra in their family budget this year to pay for the rising costs of food, heating, childcare and many other things – this makes such a difference to all our families. As a school we love that we can be sure that every child in our schools receives a hot, freshly cooked nutritious meal every day especially during these winter months.”

Henry Firth & Ian Theasby, BOSH! chefs, said: “We’re incredibly proud to be supporting the Mayor’s programme to provide free school meals for primary school children in London. At a time when so many families are struggling, it’s an amazing initiative that will ensure hundreds of thousands of children receive nutritious meals.”

Barbara Crowther, Children's Food Campaign Manager at Sustain said: "It is brilliant that across London's primary schools a hot lunch is now as much part of the core school day provided for every single child as chairs, desks, books and bathrooms. Every meal is helping children to concentrate and learn and is removing stigmatising means-testing. Funding and delivering 17m more meals to the capital's primary school children over the last term is no mean feat.  We congratulate the Mayor and his team for their can-do vision and investment, as well as to all the London boroughs, the school leaders, teachers and catering staff who have pulled out all the stops to make this happen. However, we must go further to end the postcode lottery of school food entitlement, and keep holding our national politicians responsible for ensuring every child, no matter their age, background, family income or location, is able to access healthy, hot food at school."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Every borough in the capital has received £2.65 per meal in funding to enable schools to deliver the meals. This is higher than the amount they receive from Government, who recently increased its funding from £2.41 to £2.53 per meal following the Mayor’s unprecedented intervention.

The funding assumes a 90 per cent uptake. If take up in schools is higher than 90 per cent additional funding will be made available at school level.

To further support schools, boroughs have been provided with a wide range of advice on best practice including how to encourage all parents to continue to register for the Government Free School Meal scheme – this ensures schools continue to receive the maximum additional Pupil Premium funding from Government, which is linked to Government Free School Meal take up.

Funding has been allocated to the five London boroughs that already provided universal free school meals to their primary pupils as if they were not currently providing this function. The intention is to encourage them to use these funds to support families in financial hardship as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.

About the Mayor of London ‘Love your Lunch’ Challenge 

Schoolchildren in years 3-6 were asked to create a piece of work in any medium that celebrated the value of nutritious school meals along the theme ‘'The best thing about school lunches is...'

The top prize was to receive a special lunch cooked by BOSH! chefs, Henry Firth and Ian Theasby, with ASDA donating the food for that meal.

Runner-up prizes included cookbooks from Gizzi Erskine, Tom Kerridge, Nathan Outlaw, Miguel Barcla and Jamie Oliver, as well as a pasta making workshop at Officina 00 and cooking lessons/workshops from catering partners.

The winner was a poem by Ishall (year 5) at Mandeville Primary School.

School lunch is the best I’ve had, 

Sometimes jerk chicken, it is never bland, 

Talking to my friends while eating, 

It's like having a very fun meeting, 

Making sure everyone eats, 

Helps us be strong and to compete!

Teachers sitting with us at lunch, 

Laughing, talking, they're a great bunch! 

The Chefs are great, they cook from scratch, 

Fresh ingredients from our vegetable patch. 

Healthy, happy, I love coming to school, this feeling should be a number one rule! 

School lunch should be free for all, 

Thank you, Mayor, for making that call!