Emergency free holiday meals
The Mayor of London has made available over £3.5m of emergency funding to provide nutritious meals and food supplies to those who need it most over the school holidays and at weekends. It will be delivered in partnership with Mayor’s Fund for London and The Felix Project.
Local community organisations are delivering this essential support to Londoners across all London boroughs. Year 1 of the programme started in the Easter holidays 2023 and ran until the end of March 2024. Year 2 of the programme is running from 1 April 2024 until the end of March 2025.
Why the Mayor is intervening
The cost of living crisis has had an impact on the price of energy, food and bills. As more people are people pushed into poverty and homelessness, thousands of households in London are now unable to obtain an adequate and nutritious diet.
The Mayor’s emergency free holiday meals programme forms part of the Mayor’s emergency cost of living measures. The programme helps to plug gaps in the Government’s existing holiday food provision and reach children and families in London with the highest level of need.
As financial hardship is the main driver of food insecurity, the programme also provides families with information and signposts them to advice.
The programme has provided 12.3m holiday and weekend meals to low-income families in Year 1 (2023-24) and is expected to deliver more than 10m holiday and weekend meals in Year 2 (2024-25).
Kitchen Social Network and access to other types of support
As part of the Mayor’s Emergency Free Holiday Meals programme, the GLA is providing funding to the Kitchen Social network of holiday activity schemes.
Every Kitchen Social hub in the network offers children and young people a range of holiday activities and resources to support education, life skills and mental wellbeing. They also offer everyone attending a free, nutritious meal and a safe space.
The network consists of nearly 100 Kitchen Social hubs operating during the school holidays across London. Kitchen Social hubs operate in a wide range of community settings including faith groups, youth centres, schools, adventure playgrounds and libraries.
There are no set eligibility criteria and many hubs also offer spaces for families to access advice and support with the cost of living, ranging from debt advice, financial services information, school support, and safe and warm spaces to meet, eat and socialise with other people.
How to find your nearest Kitchen Social Hub
Use the postcode search tool below. It will also show you other types of support available during the school holidays near you, including holiday food and activity clubs and details on how to access cost of living advice.
There is more information about some of the schemes being funded through the programme on our partners’ websites below. You can also search for before and after school clubs and holiday play schemes in your area on the Government’s website.
Mayor’s Fund for London
The Felix Project
School and holiday clubs
Free school meals
The Mayor is continuing the free school meals programme in 2024-25. This means that from September 2024, all state primary school children will continue to receive free school meals for the whole academic year.