Half a million free meals helping families this half-term as London Mayor issues stark cost-of-living warning to Ministers ahead of winter

• Mayor calls on Government to do more to tackle the cost-of-living crisis as shocking stats show that ahead of winter, 45 per cent of low income Londoners, and half of all disabled Londoners (50 per cent) are already using less water, energy or fuel to help them manage living costs
  
  
• The Mayor’s £3.5m free holiday meals programme is helping around 500,000 free meals to be delivered this October half-term alone
  
  
• Sadiq’s emergency funding has already helped hundreds of thousands of Londoners with more than 7m meals being given out to help low-income families during school holidays and at weekends since April

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has warned of the severe pressures facing Londoners this winter as he urged Government to urgently step forward and do more to tackle the growing cost-of-living crisis.

Around half a million free meals are being delivered to Londoners this October half-term thanks to funding from the Mayor, but the latest shocking stats highlight the strain that Londoners are already facing ahead of the winter with charities facing ‘unprecedented need’.

The cost-of-living crisis is hitting Londoners disproportionately, with the latest City Hall polling showing that 45 per cent of Londoners with a total household income of lower than £20,000 and 50 per cent of disabled Londoners are already using less water, energy or fuel to help them manage living costs.

New polling also shows:

• One in five Londoners say they are ‘financially struggling’ (21 per cent), but this rises to more than one in three (39 per cent) for Londoners who have a total household income lower than £20,000, social renters (37 per cent) and Black Londoners (36 per cent), with one in three disabled Londoners (33 per cent) financially struggling.

• Of those Londoners who are financially struggling, more than one in four (29 per cent) are going without essentials and more than two-thirds (67 per cent) are buying less food and essentials.

This comes as research from The Felix Project has shown that one in four working parents in London have skipped meals or not bought food for themselves to ensure their children can eat, while the Trussell Trust has forecast that more than 600,000 people in the UK will depend on food bank support from December until February next year.

In April the Mayor stepped forward with a £3.5m emergency free holiday meals programme to provide around 10m free meals to hundreds of thousands of Londoners during school holidays and at weekends over 12 months. Half a million meals are expected to be given out this October half-term alone, totalling more than 7m meals since April to help low-income families struggling with the soaring cost of living.

Sadiq’s support has expanded the work of the Mayor’s Fund for London and The Felix Project, and is enabling charities and grassroots organisations to reach hundreds of thousands of struggling families through a variety of programmes at community hubs and centres across London.

During term-time, up to 287,000 primary school children at London’s state primary schools are benefitting from the Mayor’s unprecedented £135m free school meals programme to help Londoners struggling with the cost of living. Sadiq is also 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. This is in addition to 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 of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m hugely concerned about the impact that winter will have on Londoners who are already struggling due to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Charities are seeing huge demand on their services with families already worrying about how to both eat and heat their homes. I’m proud to be providing half a million free meals this October half-term to lower income families and will continue to do all I can to support Londoners as we build a fairer London all, but we urgently need the Government to do more. We need Ministers to use their powers to ensure children aren’t going hungry and help those in need to get through the winter.”

Jade Harris, Head of Programmes, Food and Communities at Mayor’s Fund for London, said: “We know this winter will be an extremely tough time for families. This half term, the Mayor's funding is delivering almost 500,000 meals through our partnership, but the brutal reality is we’ve had requests to provide three times that number of meals. The same was true in the Easter and Summer holidays this year. London’s food crisis is deepening and the unprecedented need for support across our network and partners continues to grow, with the cost of living and household bills adding increasing financial pressures. This funding ensures the Mayor’s Fund for London continues delivering cooked meals to young people attending our Kitchen Social hubs whilst also providing families with nutritious, low cook recipe kits to alleviate the pressure of food insecurity at home during the school holiday.”

Rachel Ledwith, Head of Community Engagement at The Felix Project said: “We know so many families are set to struggle with the high costs of living this winter. We recently found one in ten have less than £20 a week, after paying all their bills, to buy food. That's less than £3 a day to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner. That is why it is so vital The Felix Project, working with The Mayor’s Fund for London and the Mayor is doing it all it can to help. These meals not only reduce the pressures on family food budgets but will ensure children are getting a hot healthy meal during their school break.”

Christian Johnson, Hub Leader at CEF Lyncx in Lambeth, said: “Many of the young people accessing our provision face a range of complex and interconnecting needs – cognitive and learning, social and emotional, sensory, and physical. It’s very clear that children and young people with SEND are overlooked in service provision, and the impact of Covid and now Cost of Living has made life even tougher for their families. Through the Mayor’s Fund Kitchen Social programme, we’ve been able to provide a safe and welcoming environment for the families to eat and take part in activities together. It’s also supported some much-needed respite time for families and created an inclusive space for their children to interact as equals with other.

Boutayna Reguibi, Hub Leader at Dalgarno Trust in Kensington and Chelsea, said: “Being part of Kitchen Social has allowed us to receive additional food so we can support families beyond our hub. The Take and Make boxes, and Heat and Eat meals from the Felix Project have been a massive support to us in offering a wraparound food service, and really reduced the stress on parents and carers at home during the school holidays.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1097 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 15th to 20th September 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all London adults (aged 18+).

‘Financially struggling’ is the combined responses for ‘I am having to go without my basic needs and/or rely on debt to pay for my basic needs’ and ‘I'm struggling to make ends meet’

Research from The Felix Project found that one in four working London parents struggled to afford to feed their familieshttps://thefelixproject.org/news/1-in-4-working-london-parents-struggle-to-afford-to-feed-their-families

The Trussell Trust forecasts that more than 600,000 people will need the support of its food banks over a three-month period. https://www.trusselltrust.org/2023/10/18/food-banks-bracing-for-the-worst-winter-yet/

The Mayor’s free holiday meals funding – which started for 12 months from April – includes £3.1m to the Mayor’s Fund for London and the Felix Project to expand their ready-made and cook-at-home meal provision during school holidays. The Mayor’s Fund provides free healthy meals to low-income families and young people through more than 340 community partners and 80 hubs where food is provided alongside a range of school holiday activities, while the Felix Project delivers surplus food from a range of suppliers to nearly 1,000 charity organisations and schools that support those in need.

A further £425,000 is being provided to The Felix Project to expand its capacity, and allow it to deliver food on Saturdays, as well as during the week. This will enable around 100 new charitable organisations on their waiting list to be supplied with food, and help The Felix Project deliver an additional 20 tonnes of food every weekend, which will create around 2.5-3m meals over the next year.