As more and more families struggle to make ends meet and turn to food banks to get by, free school meals have become a reliance for a lot of families and for many children their free school meal is their main nutritious meal of the day.
Many families that usually rely on free school meals during term time struggle to feed their children during the summer break as the loss of free school meals adds up to £40 per week per child to parents’ outgoings to pay for additional meals at home. Over the course of the year this amounts to a total cost of anything between £390 and £520. For families with a lower income, this can be very difficult and as a result many children go hungry, or alternatively parents go hungry to feed their children. A survey of teachers carried out by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Hungers found that children often return to school after the holidays hungry which has a negative impact on the children’s education, social wellbeing and physical health.
Hungry children often come into our community cafe in Walker Park seeking food or water which is why we’re running a summer long campaign, Holiday Hunger, to help feed hungry children in Walker. With your help we can provide children in need with nutritious meals that will help them to stay healthy and happy over the summer break and return to school nourished and ready to prosper in the new school year.
Hungry Holidays – A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Hunger details the issue of holiday hunger.
