Free school meals
08/04/2020
Some schools have been offering hot meals to children on free school meals or weekly food bags, instead of vouchers. We decided to use vouchers as this was a way to minimise the need for families to leave their homes and to maintain the privacy of families.
Extra food help for any family during the holidays
During the holiday, Tower Hamlets Health and Social Care are putting the following support in place:
Free hot meals for families with school aged children over Easter
The following locations will be serving hot meals to take away starting on Wednesday 8 April until Friday 17 April - excluding Saturday 11 April and Easter Sunday. Each location will be serving a maximum of 300 meals each to ensure social distancing etiquette can be followed.
Meals will be free to any family with school aged children who are struggling to afford, or find, food during the current situation. You should only take what you need for your family for one day.
Monday to Friday only.
- Brady Centre 192 Hanbury Street E1 5HU open 12noon to 2.30pm
- Harford Multicentre 115 Harford Street E1 4FG open 12noon to 2.30pm
- St Paul's Way 83 St Paul's Way E3 4AJ open 12noon to 2.30pm
- Gayton Classroom 1 Gayton House, Chiltern Road E3 4BY 2.30pm to 4pm
- Spotlight 30 Hay Currie Street E14 6GN 2.30pm to 4.30pm
More locations may be added soon - click here for the latest information.
Update 07/04/2020
We are now in a position to provide the £15 food vouchers (for children entitled to free school meals) during the holiday.
If your child is entitled to free school meals, please send your up-to-date email address to admin@bonner.towerhamlets.sch.uk. Please include your name, your child's full name and their date of birth. Thank you.
Voucher scheme for free school meals
The government announced on 31 March 2020 that children eligible for free schools meals will benefit from a national voucher scheme so that families can purchase food items. Although currently all pupils aged 5-11 at Bonner receive universal free school meals, the voucher scheme is just for pupils eligible to free school meals. We expect to roll this out after the scheduled school holiday (6th-17th April). Scroll down for more information.
Help now
We have put an interim system in place until we can join the national scheme. This is also limited to pupils entitled to free school meals only. The vouchers are redeemable at Tesco stores.
Parents of pupils entitled to free school meals should have received a text message with a link to access an e-voucher. The value of the voucher will be £15 per child per week (term time only).
I have the e-voucher, what do I do next?
Click on the link of paste the link into your web browser to redeem the voucher. You will see a barcode. Print or screen shoot the code.
Present the barcode at the till after completing your shopping in one of the Tesco stores.
Take your shopping home!
I have not received a text, why is this?
If you haven’t received a text, this will be because either your child is not entitled to free school meals or you may have changed your phone number recently.
If you think your child is eligible for free school meals, click here to check the criteria.
If you are having problems accessing your voucher or any other questions, please email admin@bonner.towerhamlets.sch.uk
dfe freeschoolmeals parentcarerfaqs.pdf
