Improving access to free school meals: Evaluating the implementation of free school meal auto-enrolment processes

Rob Oxley; Sundus Mahdi; Louise Padgett; Patience Gansallo; Myles Bremner; Cressida Pidgeon; Annie Connolly; Kate E. Pickett; Bob Doherty; Maria Bryant

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0339477

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Improving access to free school meals: Evaluating the implementation of free school meal auto-enrolment processes

Rob Oxley ,

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Project administration, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft

* E-mail: robert.oxley@york.ac.uk

Affiliation Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3414-8106

⨯
Sundus Mahdi,

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Project administration, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom
⨯
Louise Padgett,

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Project administration, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom
⨯
Patience Gansallo,

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Project administration, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom
⨯
Myles Bremner,

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Bremner & Co, Kineton, Warks, United Kingdom
⨯
Cressida Pidgeon,

Roles Investigation, Project administration, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Bremner & Co, Kineton, Warks, United Kingdom
⨯
Annie Connolly,

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation The Trussell Trust, Salisbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
⨯
Kate E. Pickett,

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom
⨯
Bob Doherty,

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation School for Business and Society, University of York, York, United Kingdom
⨯
Maria Bryant

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom, Hull York Medical School and the Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom
⨯

Improving access to free school meals: Evaluating the implementation of free school meal auto-enrolment processes

Rob Oxley,
Sundus Mahdi,
Louise Padgett,
Patience Gansallo,
Myles Bremner,
Cressida Pidgeon,
Annie Connolly,
Kate E. Pickett,
Bob Doherty,
Maria Bryant

Published: February 17, 2026
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0339477

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