Baker welcomes further free school meal funding for 23,681 children across Havering and Redbridge

10,653 children in Havering and 13,028 children in Redbridge will benefit from free school meals 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 both Havering and Redbridge 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. Elly Baker AM has been campaigning for universal free school meals for several years, since the cost-of-living crisis has crippled London’s families. Havering will be able to feed up to 10,653 children this academic year and Redbridge 13,028, 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 Elly Baker 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 10,653 children in Havering and 13,028 children in Redbridge.

“I have long campaigned on the issue of childhood hunger, with reports coming out over several years showing unacceptable levels of food poverty in the capital. Children who do not have enough to eat are at risk of poor physical and mental health and will struggle to concentrate in lessons.

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