London delivers half a million free meals over half term

Half a million free meals have been delivered in London over the the half term, funded by the Mayor of London’s £3.5m free holiday meals programme.

This is to help families in London with the cost of living crisis. The latest City Hall polling showing that 45 per cent of Londoners with a total household income of lower than £20,000 and 50 per cent of disabled Londoners are already using less water, energy or fuel to help them manage living costs.

The polling also shows that one in five Londoners say they are ‘financially struggling’ (21 per cent), but this rises to more than one in three (39 per cent) for Londoners who have a total household income lower than £20,000, social renters (37 per cent) and Black Londoners (36 per cent), with one in three disabled Londoners (33 per cent) financially struggling.

It was also found that of those Londoners who are financially struggling, more than one in four (29 per cent) are going without essentials and more than two-thirds (67 per cent) are buying less food and essentials.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m hugely concerned about the impact that winter will have on Londoners who are already struggling due to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Charities are seeing huge demand on their services with families already worrying about how to both eat and heat their homes. I’m proud to be providing half a million free meals this October half-term to lower income families and will continue to do all I can to support Londoners as we build a fairer London all, but we urgently need the Government to do more. We need Ministers to use their powers to ensure children aren’t going hungry and help those in need to get through the winter.”

Jade Harris, head of programmes, food and communities at Mayor’s Fund for London, said: “We know this winter will be an extremely tough time for families. This half term, the Mayor's funding is delivering almost 500,000 meals through our partnership, but the brutal reality is we’ve had requests to provide three times that number of meals. The same was true in the Easter and Summer holidays this year. London’s food crisis is deepening and the unprecedented need for support across our network and partners continues to grow, with the cost of living and household bills adding increasing financial pressures. This funding ensures the Mayor’s Fund for London continues delivering cooked meals to young people attending our Kitchen Social hubs whilst also providing families with nutritious, low cook recipe kits to alleviate the pressure of food insecurity at home during the school holiday.”