Children 'may go hungry without summer meal payments'

Cathy Green says the grant made summer more enjoyable because it took away some stress

Parents whose children avail of free school meals in term time have told BBC News NI they are worried about feeding their families over the summer holidays.

The Trussell Trust, which runs foodbanks, called on Stormont to reinstate the school holiday food grant that ended last year.

Families of 93,000 pupils had previously received £27 per child per fortnight during the summer break.

Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK where support with food costs for low income families is not available through the summer holidays.

The Department of Education said in a statement that it “recognises how disappointing this decision has been” but said “the present financial context” meant difficult decisions had needed to be made.

The Trussell Trust said it gave out 49% more food parcels to families in Northern Ireland in July and August 2023, after the grant was axed, than it had the year before.

The Department of Education has previously said providing free school meals through the school holidays would cost millions of pounds.

'Takes the stress away'

Cathy Green, a mother of three teenage boys, said the payments "made the summer a bit more enjoyable".

"It just helped take the stress away, it helped take the burden of worrying and stress out," she said.

"You knew you had that wee payment for the children to help you.

"You were able to get your shopping, your gas, electric, and not worry about bills coming in."

She said summer should be a time to look forward to, but that losing the money "just takes that all away, the enjoyment of summer".

Footballer Marcus Rashford campaigned on the issue of holiday hunger in 2020, and volunteered at an anti-poverty charity

In England, Premier League footballer Marcus Rashford previously campaigned for free school meal vouchers to be available during summer holidays.

The campaign prompted a U-turn from Boris Johnson in 2020, allowing 1.3m children to claim the free school meal vouchers.

Scotland and Wales also have voucher schemes through the summer months, but Northern Ireland does not.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the ringfenced funding for school holiday food banks ran from July 2020 to April 2023, after which the grants "could no longer be made".

They continued: “The department recognises how disappointing this decision has been for the families who have previously benefitted from these payments, particularly with recent cost of living rises."

They added: "The department continues to support school-age children through the provision of free school meals to low-income families and will continue to work with other government departments and agencies to look at ways to tackle holiday hunger.”

Kerri runs a breakfast club where children can get a free meal through the summer

Kerri Havern works at the Caring Coins Café in Newry, and said they were "very concerned" about children in the local area.

"Rather than just be worried, we put our committee together and came up with an alternative, so we have come up with the big summer breakfast club."

The breakfast club has been set up as an alternative to the free meal children will miss out on during summer, with cereal, fruit, toast, tea and coffee available.

“It’s shocking that two months of the year, these children don’t need to be fed, but the other 10 months, they can be provided with a dinner," Kerri added.

“And that’s why we’ve had to stand up and do something about it. We’re just concerned that there’s going to be too many children going hungry throughout the summer.”

Bethany Moore says people "from all walks of life" come to the food bank she helps run

Bethany Moore, from Foyle Network Foundation, said that since the payments have been axed, the number of families with children needing to use the organisation's food banks has risen by 23%.

"Families should be looking forward to the summer, they shouldn’t be worrying about finding money to put meals on the table."

Bethany also said the people who use the food bank "are just like anyone else".

"They come to the food bank from all walks of life, and it just shows that people are not earning enough.”

She added: "The executive need to act now. We'd like to see the anti-poverty strategy implemented as soon as possible and fully funded.”

'Healthy food is much more expensive'

Ms Kirk struggles to feed her children even during the school term

Donna Kirk, a mum of three from Newry, questioned why the support "is available only for the 10 months" of the year with "nothing happening" in the other two months.

Donna Kirk's children avail of free school meals during term time. She said she often struggled to provide additional meals at home.

“When my kids are at school at least I know they have that one main meal that meets their nutritional value,” she added.

“Healthy food is so much more expensive, it’s not affordable.”

She also works as a part-time catering assistant across several schools and said staff were helping feed children out of their own pockets during term time.

“We’ve had classroom assistants that are bringing in food, breadsticks, snacks, lots of things under their desks to give to children throughout the day because they know they are hungry.

“We can see that children that are coming up to the dinner hatches…we know they need that bit extra."

She said on two occasions she had witnessed pupils consume so much food “they made themselves sick”.

“It’s within them to know ‘well I’m not going to get anything later so let’s fill my body up now’.”