Donated food to feed hungry Plymouth school children

Donated food is being dished up to thousands of children in Plymouth to try to tackle the "holiday hunger gap".

Cooks from the city's main school meals provider are taking 300 lunch bags a day to events in parks and libraries throughout August.

CATERed bid for government cash but failed to get a portion of the £2m given to eight UK summer food schemes.

It is using donated food to meet "unprecedented" demand from families struggling over the summer holidays.

Campaign group End Child Poverty's 2018 poverty map showed almost 15,000 children in Plymouth were classed as living in poverty.

While children may receive free meals during term time, there is no guarantee they will be able to eat healthily in school holidays when that provision is unavailable.

The city council had 5,897 children eligible for free school meals.

"Teachers tell us that children return to school less healthy and less able to learn in September," said CATERed managing director Brad Pearce.

"These aren't necessarily children who are starving - but a Happy Meal or a bag of crisps is not the way to help these children grow up well-educated and able to go into the world of work as adults."

In 2014, the summer food programme fed 173 children. In 2017, the caterers joined forces with the city's libraries service "to feed mind and body'' and dished up 6,500 meals.

The aim for August 2018 is to serve 12,000 meals.

Mr Pearce said: "Our staff volunteer over their summer holidays because they feel a responsibility to these children.

"They know the ones who won't have had a plated meal between Friday lunchtime and breakfast club on Monday morning."

Wendy Hutchison, who went to one event with her children, said: "We came last year. It gives the kids a day out and helps people who do not have enough to feed their children."

Father-of-five Alex Ball added: "This helps a lot. It can be expensive to cover the cost of meals with five children, with the price of food going up."

The government estimated the £2m awarded to projects in some of England's most disadvantaged areas would provide healthy meals and activities throughout the summer to about 30,000 under-18s.

However, the Child Poverty Action Group said more needed to be done for an estimated three million children in the UK who were at risk of going hungry over the school holidays.

A government spokesperson said there were 300,000 fewer children living in absolute poverty than in 2010.

They said: "We are committed to supporting families to improve their lives, and employment remains the best route to achieve that.

"We recently announced a £2m fund for organisations to support disadvantaged families during the school holidays, which can include providing healthy meals."

More than 1.2 tonnes of donated food including: