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City Hall’s ‘love your lunch’ challenge asked primary schoolchildren across the capital to create a piece of work in any medium along the theme ‘The best thing about school lunches is...'. Year 5 pupil Ishall’s poem championing the benefits of free school meals ‘wowed’ the judges and scooped the top prize – lunch for the whole class.

More than 17m free school meals have been funded for state primary schoolchildren in the capital this school term, thanks to historic £135m funding from the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

He commented: “I know from personal experience how important these meals are and what a difference receiving a free nutritious meal can make to young lives, which is why I stepped forward with this unprecedented funding to help families during the cost-of-living crisis.

“The fantastic poem written by Ishall at Mandeville Primary School truly sums up the importance of these meals and I’m delighted that her class has enjoyed a special meal that they have helped to prepare too. I will continue to do all I can to support families as build a better London for all.”

An estimated 1.4m meals each week are being funded after the Mayor stepped in to help support families as they struggle with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Families in every borough in the capital are saving upwards of £440 per child across the school year.

Henry Firth & Ian Theasby from BOSH!, added: “We’re incredibly proud to be supporting the Mayor’s programme to provide free school meals for primary school children in London. At a time when so many families are struggling, it’s an amazing initiative that will ensure hundreds of thousands of children receive nutritious meals.”

The winning poem:

School lunch is the best I’ve had, 

Sometimes jerk chicken, it is never bland, 

Talking to my friends while eating, 

It's like having a very fun meeting, 

Making sure everyone eats, 

Helps us be strong and to compete!

Teachers sitting with us at lunch, 

Laughing, talking, they're a great bunch! 

The Chefs are great, they cook from scratch, 

Fresh ingredients from our vegetable patch. 

Healthy, happy, I love coming to school, this feeling should be a number one rule! 

School lunch should be free for all, 

Thank you, Mayor, for making that call!