Useful Resource
Sustain’s Good Food Local: The London report (2026) supports local authorities to create more healthy and sustainable food systems in their local areas. See the ‘Beyond the Food Bank’ maps for more information on actions councils and partners are taking to address root causes of food insecurity in London.
High levels of child poverty are directly resulting in hundreds of thousands of children in our city being denied their right to adequate food. The social security system provides a critical nutritional safety net for families, which must be strengthened alongside efforts to improve access.
The Mayor of London’s Universal Free School Meal programme in primary schools is a vital part of the nutritional safety net and now into its third year, benefiting 270,000 children each day and the Government’s decision to extend free school meal eligibility to all children in households in receipt of Universal Credit is also very welcome.
Strengthening the nutritional safety net
Calls to action
The Government should expand eligibility for the Healthy Start Scheme to all families on Universal Credit (in line with the recent expansion to Free School Meal eligibility nationally); families subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds condition and increase the age threshold of children to include four-year olds, to bridge the gap between Healthy Start and Universal Infant Free School meals. It should ensure payments increase in line with inflation, and eligible households should be automatically enrolled to avoid barriers to access.
The Government should extend Free Early Years Meals entitlement to all children in households on Universal Credit, regardless of setting type, and remove the requirement that children attend both before and after lunch to access a free meal.
The Government should expand entitlement for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme to all children from families in receipt of Universal Credit, in line with Free School Meal criteria from 2026.
The GLA and local authorities should build on work done through the Low-Income Family Tracker to inform eligible households about the Healthy Start scheme, and work with local retailers to actively increase the number of small and local businesses accepting Healthy Start cards.
The GLA should explore how it can build on its highly successful Free School Meal programme, including by extending provision to include more children in secondary schools and further education colleges.
Local authorities should use administrative data to auto-enrol eligible pupils for Free School Meals; explore whether they can follow the lead of some London councils and extend provision to include more children in secondary schools and further education colleges; and take steps to ensure that more children with no recourse to families, who are eligible for free school meals and the holiday activities and food programme take up these entitlements.
Best Practice
Westminster Council has extended itsFree School Meal Offer to Nurseries and Secondary Westminster Pupils.
Tower Hamlets Council now offers universal free school meals to children who live in the borough and attend secondary school (up to the age of 16).
Best Practice
Lambeth Council is one of a number of London councils which has introduced auto-enrolment for Free School Meals, helping an additional 1,500 children to access them since 2023.
