Southwark council ‘looking at’ offering free school meals to secondary school students
By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter
Secondary school students in a borough could be offered free school meals to help families deal with the surging cost of living.
Labour-led Southwark council is considering plans to give pupils aged 11 and over a free lunch, Councillor Stephanie Cryan revealed last week.
Options being looked at include offering all students at schools in the borough free meals, or just providing free lunches for kids from poorer families.
The council already gives free school meals to all primary school students.
Cllr Cryan announced that officials were considering extending the free lunch scheme to pupils aged 11 to 16, following a question by Southwark Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Victor Chamberlain, in a meeting on Wednesday of last week.
He asked: “Why are we not ensuring that all young people from 11 to 16 have access to a healthy school meal every day? And is that something that’s been looked at?”
Cllr Cryan, Labour cabinet member for communities, equalities and finance, said: “We are looking at that at the moment. We’re looking at do we do it universally? Do we do it targeted for those most in need? And how do we do it? We’re looking at those different options.”
But she acknowledged there would be a considerable price tag attached to any such policy.
Cllr Cryan said: “Unlike primary schools, [with] secondary schools it’s a different way of how they feed kids. They don’t all sit together around that meal. It’s looking at where is the best-targeted support around it. There is a massive financial cost, and we don’t know what we’re going to get in the settlement around that.”
Cllr Chamberlain has written to Cllr Cryan calling for the council to urgently “make a solid commitment that Southwark will expand free school meals to all secondary school pupils”.
The letter, from October 14, said one in four Southwark residents, or 75,000, were at risk of hunger, according to City Hall statistics from 2019.
Pictured top: Southwark council headquarters (Picture: Google Street View)
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