Beyond the Food Bank: London Food Poverty Profile 2018

Contents

• Foreword
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• Recommendations for action
• What London Boroughs are leading the way in tackling food poverty?
• London food poverty in numbers
• Develop and implement a food poverty action plan
• Increase the uptake of Healthy Start vouchers
• Support, protect and promote breastfeeding to boost the health of infants and mothers
• Improve the implementation and uptake of free school meals
• Secure children’s access to food during the holidays
• Provide high quality affordable childcare and maximise the value of children’s centres
• Ensure all residents have physical access to good food
• Support and enhance meals on wheels provision
• Become a London Living Wage employer and promote the London Living Wage
• Set low minimum payments for residents qualifying for Council Tax Reduction

Two major changes have been made to the 2018 top line measures. The first combines the two measures on childcare provision and children’s centres into one measure. This is now called “Provide high quality affordable childcare and maximize the value of children’s centres”.  The second expands on the measure previously dedicated to 365 days food provision for children to make a clearer distinction between children accessing food during term time, and outside school when many face holiday hunger.  These new measures are titled as follows: “Improve the implementation and uptake of free school meals” and “Secure children’s access to food during the holidays”. 23 councils responded to this year’s survey.