As we head into the school holidays, low-income families face the risk of experiencing hardship and financial pressure. Nearly one million pupils who receive free school meals during the school term are at risk of going hungry during the holidays. Beyond the school holidays, 400,000 children in London face food insecurity. With the expansion of free school meals, there are also opportunities to look at long-term solutions and the kind of infrastructure, insights or investment that are needed to create change.
For the discussion, we were joined by Sam Fox, Head of Grants and Impact at the London Community Foundation; Emma Pawson, Head of Health and Wellbeing and Programme Director for Free School Meals at the GLA; and Jim Minton, Chief Executive of the Mayor’s Fund for London, who shared insights and lessons from the partnership between the GLA, The Felix Project and the Mayor’s Fund which aims to provide 10m meals to low-income families during weekends and school holidays.