The Mayor is funding universal free school meal provision in London primary schools for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. Find guidance and support for schools.
Free School Meals
No child should go to school hungry
Primary school children in state-funded schools in London will continue to get free school meals for the next academic year. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has extended the funding as the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit families.
The Mayor recognises that families are in urgent need of support. The meals will help families with the spiralling cost of living by making sure that children in state-funded London schools will receive free school meals in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
The extension of universal free school meals could save families up to £1000 per child across two years.*
This is vital support for families facing a cost of living crisis, and will ensure that primary school children get at least one nutritious meal a day. Between the introduction of universal free school meals and the Easter holidays in 2024, the Mayor will have funded more than 32 million meals, providing families with a much needed safety net.
Why we're providing children with free school meals
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When they are hungry, children struggle to concentrate and learn in the classroom. A free school meal will help children to reach their potential.
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This initiative builds on the Mayor’s existing work helping families to cope during the cost of living crisis. Find out about other cost of living support available to Londoners on the Cost of Living hub.
Over two years, families which routinely pay for school lunches could save up to £1,000 per pupil due to the Mayor’s UFSM programme.
The GLA is using this figure having considered two scenarios that represent a range of costs: the cost of healthy packed lunches every day; and the cost for paying for school lunches every day, for each academic year (2023-24 and 2024-25).
It is assumed that on average school meals cost 13.25 per week (or £2.65 per meal) in 2023-24. We do not know the actual average cost of packed lunches, so we used the minimum estimated cost of a healthy packed lunch, £8.30 per week, using figures provided by the Food Foundation. The two figures were the basis for estimating annual cost savings for families as a result of the Mayor’s UFSM programme. The calculations for 2024-25 included projected population levels and inflation rates for that year. Savings are higher for those who routinely pay for school lunches than those who pack lunches.
Sources
- Pupil figures for 2023-24: the most recent available data on the number of KS2 pupils (Years 3-6) who are not eligible for the government’s free school meal (FSM) offering was collected from the Department for Education (see Schools, pupils and their characteristics, Academic year 2022-23 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK. While the number of pupils corresponds to the 2022-23 school year, we applied it to the 2023-24 school year calculations as we do not have 2023-24 Census data yet. This could be updated upon receiving that data.
- Pupil figures for 2024-25: GLA City Intelligence’s demographic projections are used (see Trend-based population projections – London Datastore) to account for the fact that pupils aged 7-10 (roughly corresponding to the age cohort of KS2 pupils Years 3-6) will slightly decline.
- Packed lunch costs: the lowest cost for packed lunches is applied, as identified by the Food Foundation (which is £8.30 per week; see Kids Food Guarantee Update: Packed Lunches - November 2023, Food Foundation).
- School meal costs: based on a meal cost of £2.65 the cost per week would be £13.25.
- Inflation rates: Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook for November 2023 estimate food inflation to be 2.03 per cent (see Economic and fiscal outlook – November 2023, Office for Budget Responsibility).
Register with your council for free school meals
Children will receive their free school meal under the Mayor’s scheme automatically, but it is really important that parents and guardians continue to complete their school or borough’s registration form because a child may be eligible for extra funding for their school from the government, which is worth £1,300 per year.
In some boroughs and schools there are also extra entitlements parents and guardians might be eligible for, such as support for food in the school holidays.
Find more information about how to register for government free school meals on a borough’s website, or by contacting the school.
Working collaboratively with boroughs, schools and families
We are working closely with boroughs, schools and others to make sure that there is a straightforward process as this initiative is implemented.
We have launched borough and school hubs to provide colleagues with the relevant guidance and resources needed to increase capacity.
The Mayor is funding universal free school meal provision in London primary schools for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. Find guidance and support for schools.
The Mayor is funding universal free school meal provision in London primary schools for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. Find guidance and support for families.
Involving schools and children in the conversation
The Mayor of London’s Love Your Lunch Challenge
Last year, the Mayor asked young Londoners to join the conversation about Free School Meals and to create a piece of work that tells about why they love free school meals.
Find out moreFurther actions the Mayor is taking to support vulnerable Londoners
The Mayor has repeatedly called for the government to provide free school meals to help already stretched families. With the spiralling cost of living, he could not hold off in acting to protect those most vulnerable families in London. This emergency funding will support children and families across the capital in dealing with the extreme financial pressure they are currently facing.
The Mayor will continue to call on the government to take action to provide universal free school meals for all primary schoolchildren in the long term and will continue engaging with partners, boroughs and the government to fight against food insecurity.
As past of his cost of living package, the Mayor is also providing emergency free holiday meals to support Londoners. The programme has provided 12.3m holiday and weekend meals to low-income families in Year 1 of the Free Holiday Meals programme. We expect to deliver more than 10m holiday and weekend meals over Year 2 of the Free Holiday Meals programme, with a 670,000 meals anticipated over the upcoming Easter Holidays.
Evaluation and impact of Universal Free School Meals
Learn more about how we’re monitoring and evaluating the Universal Free School Meals scheme with key partners.
Understanding the possible impacts of the Free School Meals policy and how they could be improved. Read the full report.
Get in touch
If you have any queries, please direct these to [email protected]