Six secondary schools are receiving an extra £187,000 to feed their poorest students thanks to a funding boost from Southwark Council.
The investment has been made possible by Sadiq Khan’s £130 million scheme providing free school meals to every primary school pupil in London.
As Southwark Council was already doing that, it is using the savings from the scheme to give free school meals to all its secondary school students whose families get universal credit.
Before that, only secondary school pupils from households earning less than £7,400 a year were entitled to free school meals.
To cope with the extra meals they will now serve, school kitchens have been given the extra cash to spend on crockery, ovens, fridges and other kitchen equipment.
Southwark Council hopes the expanded scheme will narrow health inequalities, tackle food insecurity, and support families through the cost-of-living crisis.
Schools will also get support from a catering consultant to help manage the changes.
The six lucky schools are Ark Globe, Bacon’s College, St Michael’s, The Charter North Dulwich, St Saviour’s & Olave’s and City of London Academy.