No child should go hungry. I’m sure you will agree. Yet across our country thousands do every day.
That’s why, ten years ago, Southwark Labour made a big decision, to fund free healthy school meals for every primary school child.
It’s been a decade of doing the right thing for our children.
To mark that anniversary, I’m delighted to say we are now going further. We are launching a pilot to extend free school meals to more young people in our secondary schools too.
This new pilot is yet another first.
In the midst of the pandemic Southwark was the first council to roll out free school meals in the holidays for low income families when the government refused to do so.
Councils across the country followed suit. In 2019 we extended them to our nursery schools, and in 2019 & 2022 we raised standards, making all of our meals even healthier.
This year the whole of London is following Southwark’s example.
Having seen the success of our free health school meals in Southwark, the Mayor of London is rolling them out for every London primary school child for the next year, as part of his emergency cost of living support. That’s great news for London’s children and a ringing endorsement of our work here in Southwark.
The money we are receiving as a result of this decision by Sadiq Khan is also allowing us to fund our secondary school pilot too.
Given how successful our free school meals programme has been, you might think it was easy to get here. The reality is it took real determination.
When we decided to deliver them for all primary school children a decade ago many said it could not be done.
Not when the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition government was imposing huge cuts on council and school budgets, but in Southwark Labour found a way.
Others said it should not be done, including Southwark’s Liberal Democrats who spent years campaigning against them. They were wrong.
Making sure every child in our primary schools has a healthy meal every day was always the right thing to do.
The evidence is clear. They have been a huge success. Not just preventing children from going hungry, but boosting children’s health and leaning too.
Our research has shown that having a notorious lunch every school day has helped children concentrate in class, raised their attainment and reduced childhood obesity.
It’s hard to think of a better investment than one that does so much to help children succeed.
They have been a lifeline for hard pressed parents too. With two out of every five children in our city now living in poverty and many more families struggling to get by it’s easy to see why.
That is even more true when you know how miserly the Government’s help is.
They now only fund free school meals for families with an income of less than £7,000. That threshold is simply far too low. If we had not stepped in to help in Southwark thousands of children across our schools would be going hungry every day.
With the national cost of living crisis deepening, the meals we fund are becoming vital for more families every day.
Our new pilot will extend these meals to even more families. Funding free school meals for young people in secondary school whose families receive Universal Credit, but who don’t qualify for government funded free school meals because they earn above the threshold.
There is much more we are doing to help Southwark residents through the cost of living crisis, with over 100,000 local people supported through our Cost of Living Fund and over 3,600 thousand people supported into more and better paid jobs through our Southwark Works Service and work to get more employer to pay the London Living Wage. As well as building thousands of new truly affordable council homes, to give just a few examples.
But this month, ten years on from their introduction, it’s right to take a moment to celebrate our Southwark Free Health School Meals, and a decade of doing the right thing for the children of our borough.