In this section please share details on your food provision. For example; did you provide children and young people with at least one nutritious meal a day? Did you work in any partnerships to provide food? What were the children and young people’s attitudes to the food you provided?
In Gloucestershire we wanted to ensure that children, young people, and their families received a high-quality food experience from the HAF programme. We benefited from having nutritionists as part of the Gloucestershire County Council HAF Team. These colleagues worked with District Lead Organisations and providers to support the development of the food offer across the county.
We wanted to ensure that children, young people, and their families received a high-quality food experience from the HAF programme.
All providers were required to meet the DFE framework standards around food provision and register as a food business where appropriate. All providers had staff and or volunteers who have been trained in Food Hygiene delivered by Royal Society for Public Health and Allergens delivered by the Food Standards Agency, both of which were sourced and funded by the GCC HAF Team as part of the provider training programme.
Each provider prepared a delivery plan for each HAF holiday as part of the bidding process, and this included wherever possible the menu for that provision. The menus were reviewed by our nutritionists and advice and guidance was provided to ensure the food met the school food standards, and was diverse and of high quality, using local ingredients where possible.
Where food was not able to be provided directly by that provider, a range of food deliveries were in place in each District, including a local cookery school, a private company, and the HAF Eat Well Wagon in Gloucester City which particularly focused on our open access activities in the city.
Having a range of approaches to provide localised solutions is a strength in the delivery model that GCC operates. Alongside the support from our nutritionists, parent satisfaction was evident in the parent and carer surveys. Please see comments below:
‘’My kids were very happy with the food. They are a bit suspicious about vegan food to be honest and have asked if they could have normal school lunch offer (meat), but the food was delicious regardless and we were happy to take leftovers home. It was very helpful for me to have food provided so I didn't have to think about it’ - HAF Parent, Spring 2023.
Our monitoring evidences that all providers offered healthy meals for participants. The parent/carer surveys also suggested an increase in the percentage of children accessing HAF food provision. We saw a direct increase of 15% in the number of children fed during HAF provision in Spring 2023 compared to Spring 2022. We have used the findings from the analysis of the Spring 2023 food offer feedback from parents to further enhance the food offer to meet the needs of the communities.
Gloucestershire’s HAF programme aimed to be inclusive and accessible. Where providers could not cater for an allergen or dietary requirement due to the complex needs of the individual, we were able to provide the family with a supermarket voucher from additional funding outside of the HAF grant conditions, that covered the cost of them providing lunch. We will continue to work with providers to increase their confidence when dealing with, and catering for, allergies/intolerances/diseases/ dietary requirements.
Food was provided through a variety of routes, some providers were registered as a food business and prepared food themselves, some used external caterers, while others collaborated with other HAF providers such as Hartsbarn in Forest of Dean, the Eat Well Wagon in Gloucester, and Springbank in Cheltenham, for their food provision. These evidence some strong partnership working across the county to ensure access to free healthy nutritious food at all HAF events.
All Gloucestershire’s provision offered at least one meal for the children per day. If the day was shorter than 3 hours a healthy snack was provided including fruit and vegetables. The type of food varied and where possible hot food was provided. Some events such as open access family events provided a more suitable packed lunch, which went down well. In previous holidays, sports-based activities struggled with uptake on hot meals due to the activity levels decreasing hunger, these providers implemented ways to increase uptake on hot meals, such as quieter activities before lunch., These were discussed with providers during quality assurance visits.
During quality assurance visits we also asked the young people attending what they thought of the food, and the majority enjoyed it. Please see quotes from children below.
‘’I was able to try melon, this is something I have never had at home or school’’ - HAF Participant – Spring 2023’’
‘’I love the fruit kebabs; I have made them at home too’’ - HAF Participants – Summer 2023
‘’None of the children had experienced plant-based meat before our provision and they all really enjoyed the plant-based sausages’’ - HAF Provider – Summer 2023
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