17 million free school meals provided in London this term

In London, more than 17 million free primary school meals have been funded by the Mayor of London's office this term.

£135 million of funding has helped 287,000 children each day since the start of September.

An estimated 1.4 million meals each week are being funded and families are saving around £440 per child across the school year.

City Hall launched a 'Love your lunch' challenge where primary school children were asked to create a piece of work on the theme: ‘The best thing about school lunches is...'. A poem by year 5 pupil Ishall won the top prize - lunch for the whole class by celebrity chefs BOSH!

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.”