‘Holiday hunger should be the shame of this government and it isn’t’ | Dawn Foster

Kids’ clubs are stepping in to fill the gap and stop children going hungry during the school holidays, as families struggle with austerity

As the summer holidays begin, many families look forward to breaks away from home, in the UK and abroad. Yet for thousands of families, the six-week school break is characterised not by play schemes and day trips in the sun, but acute financial stress, hunger and malnourishment, due to the absence of free school meals for children on low incomes that costs a family £30-£40 a week.

With three million children at risk of hunger during the school holidays, the Trussell Trust has warned that food bank use spikes each summer. And last year, 593 organisations running holiday clubs across the UK provided more than 190,000 meals to over 22,000 school-aged children.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2LA3sRY