Tower Hamlets has become the first council in England to roll out universal free school meals to primary and secondary school pupils.
The council had already been funding universal free meals for all primary school children since 2014 and will expand to pupils up the age of 16 from this week.
The secondary school scheme is being rolled out in phases based on how ready sites are to provide meals. An extra £722,000 is being provided by the council to schools in the London borough for new equipment.
It is hoped that by January 2024 just under 38,000 pupils will have access to a free school meal in Tower Hamlets, which has the youngest population in England and Wales. Also, almost half of children in the borough live below the poverty line, the highest rate in the UK.
