In June 2025, the UK Government announced they would be extending School Meal Funding eligibility to all households receiving Universal Credit, regardless of their income, lifting the previous £7,400 earnings cap introducing in 2018. This is expected to benefit over 500,000 additional pupils and will come into effect in the 26/27 School Year. This funding is also tied to an updated rollout of the School Food Standards, which are aiming to enhance consistency and quality of these meals across the country.

Concerns have been raised by some parties on how quickly the effects of this will be seen from September 2026, but groups like the School Food Review have heralded this as a monumental step for thousands of children living in poverty. The 40 organisations that make up the School Food Review have been campaigning for expanded free school meals and have built a manifesto around the following goals:

1. Equitable access to School Meals: Every child should have access to hot, nutritious school meals.
2. Quality of Food: Ensure all school food is nutritious and sustainable.
3. Fairer Funding: Make it easy for school leaders, caterers and administrative staff to provide meals.

However, whilst this increase in funding and review of the School Food Standards is a good start, the School Food Review are pushing for further changes including:

1. Ensuring Adequate Funding: Ensuring schools aren’t forced to subsidise meals from limited budgets.
2. Roll out updated School Food Standards: Standards backed by enhanced quality assurance mechanisms .
3. Building School Capacity: Utilising SFR’s toolkit to embed sustainable practices at the ground level.
4. Monitoring Outcomes: From child nutrition and wellbeing to educational attainment and poverty reduction.

The School Food Review view their manifesto as more than a campaign; they see it as a blueprint for transforming the school food system and, with the recent wave of government reform extending free meals to all Universal Credit families, there's real momentum.

The path ahead now depends on sustaining proper funding, embedding fresh nutritional standards, and turning policy into day-to-day practices so every child can learn well fuelled by a healthy school meal.