Meals & More, a leading charity which supports children over the school holidays, has called on the Government to do more to support the social and nutritional needs of children when schools are closed.
In a letter to the Chancellor ahead of the budget submission, the organisation which has supported provision of more than 2 million meals for children living in food poverty, highlighted the need to extend the Holidays Activities and Food Programme past its initial three-year term and ensure that any future funding is linked to inflation. Meals & More, which was launched by foodservice wholesaler Brakes in 2015, also wants to see the programme extended to cover all children in food poverty, not just those receiving free school meals.
Through organisations like Meals & More there is greater recognition of the holiday hunger, which led to the introduction of the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) in October 2021. However, there are still challenges that mean millions of children are going hungry and with no commitment to continue this programme after the initial three-year funding expires, many children face an uncertain future.
Peter McGrath, Operation Director at Meals & More, said: “The introduction of the HAF programme was a major milestone in helping to address holiday hunger. However, there has been no commitment to continue the programme after its initial term. Coupled with that, inflation has already significantly eroded the £200m that the previous Government invested in the programme, making it woefully inadequate in dealing with the problem.”
Paul Nieduszynski, Chief Executive of Sysco GB, said: “Since we first launched Meals & More in 2015, the journey has been incredible moving holiday hunger from an unnoticed issue to a government issue. However, the challenge remains and there are some four million children facing food poverty.
“Last year, we committed our support to Meals & More for another five years and we hope that the Government will see how much this support is needed and make a similar commitment for its Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.”
Meals & More was established in 2015 and registered as an independent charity in 2018 with the aim to tackle holiday hunger. Through funding for holiday activity clubs, it has supported more than 2.1 million meals for children living in food poverty. In 2024, it will partner with 48 UK charitable organisations and 320 holiday clubs.