Sadiq Khan has urged Keir Starmer to adopt universal free school meals for all primary pupils in Labour's next manifesto.
The London Mayor, who grew up receiving free school meals, piled the pressure on the Labour leadership to get behind our campaign to expand free lunch provision to ensure no youngster goes hungry.
The Mirror and the National Education Union's (NEU) have joined forces for the Free School Meals for All campaign, calling on Liz Truss to act as families struggle with the cost of living crisis.
Addressing a Labour conference fringe event, Mr Khan described the "shame and stigma" he felt while queuing up to get his tokens for free school meals.
He said: "I grew up on free school meals and it was a lifeline for families like mine.
"That being said my dad hated filling in the long, long forms you had to fill in to be eligible for free school meals and I hated being in that queue where you get the free school meal tokens.
"I still remember - and I'm embarrassed by saying this - the shame and stigma of being in the queue getting a token for a free school meal."
Mr Khan said teachers told him about taking toasters to work and buying loaves of bread with their own money to feed their pupils during the day.
"What sort of society do we live in?"
He added: "We have got to lobby this Government to make sure they do right over the course of the next few weeks and months, and we've got to make sure that in our manifesto for the general election that we have that pledge - a universal right to free school meals for every primary school child."
Labour MP Ian Byrne, who campaigns against hunger, said: "Kids are falling asleep at tables and worrying that they can't concentrate for the hunger.
"This is where we are now and it's only getting worse.
The Liverpool West Derby MP accused the Tories of a "sinister" lack of political will to feed hungry children - while offering tax cuts for the richest in society.
And he urged Labour bosses to take up the cause.
"The Labour Party have got to step up to the plate with this," he said.
"This is an absolute vote winner."
Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, also backed the calls.
"For this Government and the Labour Party to commit to universal free school meals needs to be something that's high on the agenda," she said.
Art teacher Sarah Kilpatrick described how Tory cuts over the past 10 years had decimated the resources of her secondary school in Gateshead.
"This country has never needed a new Government more than it does right now," she said.
NEU Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said the pandemic had shone a light on the shocking levels of poverty some families were living in - and warned it was only getting worse.
"How dare you say it's too expensive when you have given billions to the wealthiest people in this country," he fumed at the Tories.
