Funding to allow councils to provide meals over school holidays

The government has put in place a new £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme, which will be run by councils in England, and will have 80% earmarked to support hard-hit families with food costs and bills.

The funding will allow councils to directly help the hardest-hit families and individuals, as well as provide food for children who need it over the holidays.

Local councils, rather than schools, will distribute the funds, as they understand which groups need support over the school holidays.

Schools meanwhile will continue providing meals for disadvantaged children during term-time.

The Holiday Activities and Food programme, which has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children since 2018, will also be expanded across England next year.

It will cover Easter, Summer and Christmas in 2021, and cost up to £220m. It will be available to children in every local authority in England, building on previous programmes – including this summers, which supported around 50,000 children across 17 local authorities.

Healthy Start scheme payments are also set to increase from £3.10 to £4.25 a week from next April, 2021.

This scheme supports pregnant women or those with children under four who have a low income and are in receipt of benefits to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. This will help people boost the long-term health of their children.

The Government has also pledged additional funding of £16m for food distribution charities, with conversations with FareShare and others ongoing as to how this is allocated.