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Cabinet doubles holiday hunger fund to more than £2.7m

Published
£1.39m of funding, from the Department for Education, will be used to delivery the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) for four weeks in August, and one week at Christmas.

At its meeting on Wednesday 23 June, the county council’s Cabinet approved a £2.7m fund to support vulnerable children during the school summer holidays.

The cabinet agreed to allocate £1.39m of funding from the Department for Education to deliver the Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) which will be available throughout Gloucestershire during August and at Christmas.

Cabinet committed an additional £1.3m from the council’s Covid Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) to maximise the number of vulnerable children and young people who can be supported. This includes young people aged 16 and over, children with additional needs, and disadvantaged families from black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups.

A total of almost £1.39m will be divided up between the county’s six district leads so they can deliver food and activities for children in receipt of free school meals in their area.

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council said: “Doubling the funding means we can go even further to make sure no child in Gloucestershire goes hungry in these challenging times.

“We have already helped more than 13,000 young people since October last year and it’s great we’re able to increase those we can support, in partnership with our district councils, the voluntary sector, and other organisations.”

The HAF programme, which ran as a pilot for one week of the Easter break, will now run for 4 weeks during the Summer, and will enable children and young people to enjoy fun activities with friends, learn and develop new skills and most importantly have access to nutritious food.  

For the remaining two weeks of the summer holidays, the council will again provide food vouchers for those children who receive free school meals. This is a continuation of the Council’s commitment to ensure no child goes hungry during the pandemic.

The HAF activities can involve helping children and young people learn new things, enriching activities from sport to music, dance, drama, art, cooking and gardening, as well as improving socialisation, helping young people to have fun with friends this summer.

Parents and carers who think their children and young people might benefit from free holiday clubs should visit https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/HAF for more information.