Call for UK administrations to take action to tackle ‘Holiday Hunger’

The letter sent to the relevant Secretaries of State and Cabinet Secretaries congratulates the Welsh Government on their support and urge them to maintain and build on this commitment. We are calling on the other UK administrations to commit to playing their part in eliminating the social injustice of ‘Holiday Hunger’ for all children in the UK. We are therefore calling on the UK administrations to:

• Sign up publicly to the shared ambition to eliminate ‘Holiday Hunger’ in a decade
• Initiate ring-fenced funding for holiday provision with an associated UK research programme that will inform long-term policy
• Support sharing of good practice and evaluation to underpin sustainable approaches

The full text of the letter, with signatures, is here. 

Kath Dalmeny, Chief Executive at Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said:

“A wide-ranging group of organisations and individuals including charities, businesses, academics and funders, are increasingly concerned about the number of children struggling to eat enough or going hungry during the school holidays. Throughout these periods, parents have the challenges of managing increased childcare demands, heavier domestic bills and the cost of providing extra meals. Children living in these circumstances often experience multiple difficulties including hunger, poor-quality food, social isolation, learning loss and family tension. The impact of this can mean children return to school having fallen behind and in a poorer physical state than when they left school at the end of the previous term. We need a combination of action from national and local government alongside non-statutory partners to rebuild and enhance the safety net for families in poverty.”

Naami Padi, Director at the Venture Community Association which provides food during the school holidays as part of its activities for children said:

“Over 500 children access our holiday programmes and if we didn’t provide them with a meal many would go hungry. Most of our children are eligible for free school meals so parents are able to keep food costs low during term time. During the holidays these parents have hungry children to feed and no extra income, it’s no wonder a lot of them go hungry. It is our responsibility to feed children and the resources required are modest in relation to the impact. I am hopeful that government will commit to this call for action and do everything in their power to eliminate holiday hunger.”

Notes

1. In January 2017, the Welsh Government announced a year of (2017/18) funding of £500k for ‘Lunch and Fun’ clubs in areas of need in school summer holidays. This follows the success of ‘Food and Fun Wales’ - an award winning school holiday enrichment programme.
2. The situation or families struggling during the school holidays is set out in a number of reports, for example the evaluations of the Accord Group's Holiday Kitchen. 
3. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger has stated that ‘a national programme backed by £200 million could all but eliminate child hunger during the school holidays’ in England. APPG on Hunger (December 2015) A route map to ending hunger as we know it in the United Kingdom: Feeding Britain in 2015-16, p. 20
4. Evaluations of to date have identified a number of positive impacts of holiday food provision including: children being food secure during the holidays and can be better placed to achieve when school returns; children try new and nutritious foods which could have a positive influence on children’s dietary habits at home; alleviating financial constraint on parents and providing parents with peace of mind;  and the breakdown of perceived barriers to parents engaging with school and community interventions. See P.L. Graham et al (August 2016) School Holiday Food Provision in the UK: A Qualitative Investigation into Needs, benefits and Potential for Development, Frontiers in Public Health.   
5. The Venture Community Centre is based in Notting Hill in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The centre provides a range of activities for the local community including activities for children in and around the Notting Hill Adventure Playground. The Centre serves an area of high deprivation and families’ budgets can be particularly squeezed during school holidays. In response to concerns about children access to sufficient healthy food, the centre offers food to children as part of its after-school and school holiday provision. Children are also involved in preparing the meals and also benefit from eating a shared meal together. The food is currently funded through the centre’s own resources.
6. The letter is coordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. Sustain advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity. It represents around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level. www.sustainweb.org