Legal push to extend Mayor’s free meals scheme to independent Charedi schools fails

Lawyers for the children had argued that the policy indirectly discriminated against Charedi families, since the only option for most Charedi families was to send their children to independent religious schools.

While the claimants’ schools charged fees that ranged from £2,080 to £4,056 a year, families were not required to pay fees “if they are unable to afford them” and none of the claimants’ families paid school fees, the court was told.

Lawyers argued that the Stamford Hill community was likely to “experience poverty at a greater level than families in London generally and that the community is likely to experience a higher-than-average risk of food insecurity,” the judge wrote in his summary of the case.

However, he noted that the Mayor’s scheme followed Parliament, which had decided it was “appropriate to limit state-funded free school meals to state-funded schools”.

The claimants had suggested extending the scheme to independent schools that charge fees of less than £5,000 or discretionary fees.

At the end of last year, the Mayor approved a grant of £450,000 to alleviate food insecurity within the Charedi community, the Mayor’s counsel pointed out.

The judge’s decision was published last month and revealed in the satirical Jewish publication Private Oy!