Although many children may be dreading the end of the school holidays and enjoying the finale of their freedom, kids on free school meals are just looking forward to getting fed every lunchtime again.
At the beginning of the summer, the Trussel Trust, who help run thousands of foodbanks across the country, anticipated the demand to be its highest ever.
87,496 food parcels went to children in the UK during the summer holidays of 2018, which was an increase of 20% on the previous summer.
Christian MP Frank Field has called 2019 the ‘worst summer yet’ for child hunger and called on the government to set up a national scheme that feeds children in the breaks.
Christian foodbank worker Natalie Williams, who works in Hastings, told Premier: “That is what we’re seeing on the ground here. We just this week actually had to put out on Facebook for the first time some photos of our warehouses, empty shelves, with a bit of a desperate appeal for some food to come in.
“Our July was the biggest July we’ve had. We’ve been open for seven years and it’s gone up by about 25% compared to last July and we’re seeing more and more people coming in.
“To be honest with us that’s across the board, not just in the summer, but like I said, we’ve just seen this spike in July.”
She said last Friday they served 166 people in a two hour session.
Ms Williams explained how she would like…
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