School dinners can fight the cost-of-living crisis

As the cost-of-living crisis began to bite in 2023, London mayor Sadiq Khan announced that all primary school children in the city would receive free school meals. With inflation sky rocketing, he believed this would save families money, give kids access to healthier food, and circumvent the stigma of receiving means-tested free school meals.

Fast forward to 2026 and the predictions around the cost of essentials are once again bleak. Driven by the impact of Donald Trump’s war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on fertiliser shipments and food growing, we are warned that UK food price inflation could hit 9% by the end of the year.

As we face down another jump in the cost of groceries, several potential solutions have floated around public discussion. The idea of voluntary price controls on everyday essentials like milk, bread and eggs provoked a rather predictable backlash, with one industry representative calling the idea ​”completely preposterous”. But the idea isn’t without precedent: a similar proposal was implemented in France in response to the 2023 crisis. It does however come with challenges: defining what is an ​“essential” food is fraught with difficulty. Supermarkets may compensate for any freeze in one category of goods by increasing prices on another. If the cost of a shoppers’ basket went up overall, they may not even notice that specific goods have become cheaper.

Another approach is the idea of the ​“social supermarket”. The concept has been embraced by New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and would see publicly owned supermarkets keep food prices down. These shops would not be interested in making massive profits and would occupy public buildings, reducing the need to charge high prices to pay rent, shareholders or corporate executives. The principles behind this aren’t a million miles away Andy Burnham’s vision of ​“Manchesterism”. But the unknown is whether a public supermarket can actually guarantee lower prices, compared with the economies of scale achieved by a Tesco or Lidl.

Across the UK, a network of pantries and food co-operatives has also started to establish itself. These often make use of public buildings but rely on surplus food, often otherwise destined for the landfill, to keep prices low. These pantries are a lifeline for many and could be scaled up, but provision and quality can be unpredictable.

But beyond focusing on supermarkets as the point at which shoppers purchase food, we should think about the public services which serve food. Which brings us back to universal free school meals. Primary school children in Wales are entitled to free school meals since 2022, and in Scotland free school meals apply to all children up to P5 (age 9/​10). In England and outside London, free school meals were made accessible to children in England from reception to year two in 2014. From this autumn, free school meals will be rolled out to all children in England from families receiving universal credit, reaching 500,000 additional children. Against the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis, the expansion of free school meals over the past few years has been a rare bright spot.

Evaluations show irrefutable evidence of the policy’s success. Crudely, universal free school meals are a neat way of giving £500 a year per child back to families. 84% of London parents from across the income spectrum say that the policy has alleviated pressure on their household finances. A third of parents say the policy meant less household debt. Beyond the economic impact, the School Food Review Coalition say that children who eat free school meals consume more fruit and vegetables, and that universal free school meals can be a tool for tackling obesity, promoting mental wellbeing, boosting educational attainment and enhancing social cohesion. A cost-benefit analysis found that for every £1 invested in universal free school meals, £1.71 is generated in core benefits like savings to families, schools and the NHS, with the return on investment through, estimated to be higher with universal provision compared to a targeted programme.

The universalism of the approach is key: treating free school meals as an essential good to which all children are entitled builds solidarity and combats the popular sentiment that politics is failing those who work hard and play by the rules. Limiting free school meals to households who receive universal credit does target the benefits toward those who need them most but inevitably creates a cliff-edge when parents no longer receive benefits and fails to take account of the widespread nature of in-work poverty and insecurity. NEF’s own campaign for a Living Income is rooted in analysis which shows that a couple with two children now need £74,000 a year to achieve a minimum acceptable standard of living.

As Andy Burnham prepares to set out his priorities as our next prime minister, we have an opportunity to inject more ambition into the government’s plans to soften the cost of living. We need a policy package which supports everyone through the coming hard economic stretch, alongside targeted action on child poverty and inequality, is essential. Universal free school meals are a great place to start and are widely supported by the public: where better to invest than in the health and wellbeing of our children, and the families who are raising the next generation?

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