Joanne McCartney welcomes further free school meal funding for over 20,000 children in Enfield and Haringey

20,730 children will benefit from free school meals in Enfield and Haringey for a further academic year, thanks to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, continuing funding for City Hall’s groundbreaking universal free school meals policy - saving London families up to £1,000 in total over two years. 

The proposed new funding will see Enfield and Haringey offered £3 per meal to help to continue to deliver the meals from September. This is 18.5 percent higher than the amount they receive from the Government.  

The Mayor’s proposed extension will help hundreds of thousands of children who don’t qualify for Government help receive the meals for another year. 

The move will extend Sadiq’s unprecedented £135m programme, which is currently helping to deliver meals to up to 287,000 children each day and has funded more than 17 million meals between September and Christmas. 

As a result of the Mayor’s current funding, this school year is the first time ever that free school meals have been available universally to all primary-aged pupils in mainstream 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. That means, without City Hall’s additional funding, many children from working families in poverty were not able to receive free school meals. 

Joanne McCartney has been campaigning for universal free school meals for several years. Enfield alone will be able to feed up to 12,202 children this academic year, with the amount rising to £3 per meal for each child.

The free school meals funding is a crucial way to support Londoners with the cost-of-living crisis. Since April 2023, City Hall has also provided an emergency funding package of more than £3.5m that has helped to provide more than 10 million free meals during school holidays, and at weekends, to low-income Londoners struggling with the spiralling cost of living. 

Labour London Assembly Member for Enfield and Haringey, Joanne McCartney AM, said: 

“I am delighted that the Mayor has been able to commit further funding to City Hall’s ground-breaking universal free school meals policy. 

“This £140 million investment means that families across London will save up to £1000 per child over two years.  

“With the brutal effects of the cost-of-living crisis, I am so pleased that City Hall is stepping up to feed 20,730 children in Enfield and Haringey.

“I have long campaigned on the issue of child poverty and this important programme will support many young people across our city whose families are struggling financially. Hungry children cannot learn, the evidence is clear that a nutritious school lunch will mean that they can concentrate in school and reach their potential.

“I am thrilled that this genuinely life changing policy will continue, and that London’s children and families get the support they need.”