Many parents in Northern Ireland are worried about how they will feed their children over the school summer holidays. Previously, 93,000 families had received £27 per child per fortnight during the break. However, the grant was discontinued last year. The Trussell Trust, which runs foodbanks, has called upon Northern Ireland to reinstate the school holiday food grant. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that does not offer support with food costs for low-income families during the summer months.
Donna Kirk, a mother of three from Newry, claims the support is available for only 10 months of the year, with “nothing happening” in the other two months. She questions why the support ends when children are still out of school. Kirk says she struggles to provide additional meals at home and that “healthy food is so much more expensive, it’s not affordable.” At least Kirk knows her children have one main meal that meets their nutritional value when they are at school.
The Department of Education says it recognizes the disappointment of the decision, but “the present financial context” meant difficult decisions had to be made. The Trussell Trust has revealed that since the grant was axed, it gave out 49% more food parcels to families in Northern Ireland, compared to the year before. England’s Premier League footballer, Marcus Rashford, attracted attention to the issue of holiday hunger in 2020; his campaign caused a U-turn from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, allowing 1.3 million children to claim free school meal vouchers.
Cathy Green, a mother of three teenage boys, says the payments “made the summer a bit more enjoyable”. She adds, “you knew you had that wee payment for the children to help you… not worry about bills coming in.” Kerri Havern, who works at the Caring Coins Café in Newry, set up the big summer breakfast club, with cereal, fruit, toast, tea, and coffee available. Bethany Moore, from the Foyle Network Foundation, said that since the payments were cut, the organization’s food bank has seen a 23% rise in the number of families with children needing to use its services.
The Department of Education previously said that providing free school meals through the school holidays would have cost millions of pounds. The department continues to support school-age children through free meal provisions during schools terms and says it will work with other government departments and agencies to explore ways to tackle the issue of holiday hunger
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