Free school meals for primary school children in Harrow, part of London Mayor scheme!

London’s mayor Sadiq Khan’s announced £130m scheme to give every primary school pupil in London free school meals for the next academic year, includes Harrow children.
Harrow has seen a growing number of children living in poverty, where over 18,000 children living in poverty. There are serious concerns about the profound and devastating consequences of food insecurity on the health, wellbeing and livelihoods of the residents.
According to the Action for Children report this year, 9597 (43.1%) of Harrow East and 7939 (33.2%) of Harrow West children were in poverty in 2020/21.
Other social deprivation input indicators include that around 58,230 people living in poverty in private households in Harrow as of March 2021 as estimated by the Office for National Statistics, and that 23.5% of residents were estimated to be earning below the Living Wage in 2021.
The total number of “violent crime” in Harrow is 11.5k, and this number has increased by 5.8% when compared year-over-year in the period of January 2022 – December 2022 according to the Plumplot.
London Mayor’s welcome initiative of the free school meals follows the similar decisions by the progressive London councils in Newham, Islington, Southwark, Westminster City and Tower Hamlets to offer their own universal primary school free school meals. Harrow?