Mayor of London Sadiq Khan recalls receiving free school meals as a child: ‘I was lucky’

London schools dished out more than 43 million free meals last year, feeding 287,000 children. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan hailed the milestone as “inspiring”, pledging a further £140m to continue the free lunch programme in all primary schools for a second year.

The policy – which Khan has committed to as long as he is in office – eradicates the “stigma” children felt before the lunches were universalised.

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“I was lucky to receive free school meals,” the mayor told the Big Issue. “I remember the embarrassment having to go to a separate line. When it came to lunchtime, we were on a separate table to our mates, and it shouldn’t be like that. And the great thing about the school that I’ve visited now is everyone’s eating together.”

Previously, children in Years 3 to 6 would only receive 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. City Hall claims that the policy will save families more than £1,000 per child over two years.

Universalising the meals ensures no child goes hungry, said Khan.

“It’s the stories that are really inspiring,” he added. “The teachers telling us about better performance in the classroom, the parents sharing with us that they feel more financially secure, more psychologically secure… the benefits are huge.”

Across the country, around one million children are experiencing destitution – a number that has tripled since 2017. The Labour government have not committed to universalising free school meals, instead mooting free breakfast clubs.

Before the election, Keir Starmer balked at a national scheme, saying that the party must have “clear rules of what we can’t afford”. But Khan hopes the mounting evidence in favour of the policy will change the prime minister’s mind.

“One of the reasons why we’re keen to build up the evidence base is to persuade the government this should be rolled out across the country,” he said. “Most people [don’t meet the threshold for free school meals], but they’re still struggling. Some parents are skipping meals to make ends meet. Other parents are doing two, three jobs to make ends meet.”

The mayor was joined by TV chefs at Henry Fawcett Primary School in Lambeth, to mark the extension of his significant funding.

Tom Kerridge – perhaps best known for TV appearances on the Great British Bake Off and various other primetime cooking shows – described the meals as “amazing”.

“I grew up in a single parent family, and school meals were very very different. Big trays of stuff, slopped out,” he said. “If you qualified for free school meals it wasn’t with the same kind of care. [Now there’s] understanding and knowledge of nutrition, vitamins, fresh fruit, vegetables, the way the food is served up… there’s excitement about creating something playful, tasty.”

Kerridge echoed the mayor’s support for a universal free school meal scheme, nationwide. Currently, roughly two million pupils in England qualify for the lunches. This accounts for nearly one-in-four (24.6%) state school students, an increase of 75,000 pupils on last year.

For free school meal program is “is incredibly important to our school and our community”, said Dawn Persad, headteacher at Henry Fawcett Primary School. “For some of our children, our school lunches are the only hot meal they will eat all day,” she said.

“From our experience, we know that it has also substantially relieved financial pressure on families, particularly those families who are on the cusp of meeting the household income threshold.”

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