Free School Meals Evidence Pack update
Every child, no matter where they live, should have the same opportunity to access and enjoy nutritious, delicious and sustainable school food – at breakfast and beyond.
With the Government promising to raise the healthiest generation of children ever, break down barriers to opportunity and tackle child poverty, now is the time to highlight the power of Free School Meals to drive real progress in achieving these aims.
The Feed the Future campaign run by the School Food Review is calling for Free School Meals at lunchtime to be extended to all children, beginning with those from families on Universal Credit
Our new report, The Superpowers of Free School Meals, launching today at an event in parliament, provides all the evidence to show exactly why every child, no matter where they live, should have the same opportunity to access and enjoy nutritious, delicious and sustainable school food.
About the Evidence Pack: The Superpowers of Free School Meals Report 2025
This Evidence Pack was first published in 2022, and has been updated to reflect additional data and evidence from a range of independent sources on the power of Free School Meals (FSM). This report aims to demonstrate to a new cohort of policymakers the evidence that investment in Free School Meals makes sense socially, morally and economically.
Today, in England, we have a universal school meal offer for children in Reception until Year 2, after which a threshold for entitlement to FSM, set at an annual household earning of less than £7,400 (not including benefits and after taxes), comes into force.
Since this evidence pack was first published in 2022, food insecurity continues to be a reality for many low income families across the UK: in January 2025, 18% of households with children reported experiencing food insecurity, compared to 12% of households without children.
The report demonstrates how Free School Meals offer multiple benefits, including to children’s health, wellbeing and education, as well as having benefits to the wider economy and delivering a considerable return on investment. It also shows how there is huge support for policy change to expand the scheme across the public, political parties and the education and catering sector.
