Mayor announces emergency funding to provide 10 million free school meals

The Mayor of London has announced an emergency funding package to help provide free meals during school holidays and at weekends to low-income Londoners struggling with the cost of living.

Sadiq Khan is providing the new one-off funding of more than £3.5million to help charities reach hundreds of thousands of struggling families and children, with about 10 million free meals in the next 12 months.

The funding follows an announcement last month from the Mayor to provide an emergency £130million for free school meals to primary school children in London.

Mr Khan has repeatedly called on the Government to do more to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and the challenge of children going hungry during school holidays.

Recent Greater London Authority polling has shown that half of Londoners are now either “financially struggling” or “just about managing”.

Pictured top: Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, visits his former school, Fircroft Primary, in Tooting Bec, to announce an emergency scheme around free school meals in February (Picture: PA)