County council to provide summer holiday food vouchers for children receiving free school meals

Free school meals

Kent County Council will be providing food vouchers over the summer holidays for families whose children are entitled to benefits-related free school meals.

One £50 food voucher, that can be used in supermarkets and some local shops, will be provided to each eligible child or young person by their school or college.

KCC is funding the vouchers from part of its allocation from the Government’s Household Support Fund.

KCC is also once again running its free Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) for children eligible for free school meals during the summer break, which is funded by the Department for Education.

Each child is entitled to four weeks of up to 16 hours of free activities, with lunch provided.

Eligible families will receive a voucher from their school which shows their eligibility for a place and can then use it to book a place with a local provider.

HAF providers offer a range of activities, from cookery, through to fitness and sports-based clubs, to some focusing on outdoor learning.

Shellina Prendergast, KCC’s Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, said: “For many families, school holidays can be especially difficult with the extra cost of more meals and paying for more activities for their children while they are at home.

“I am pleased that we can help ease the pressure on some of Kent’s most vulnerable families, particularly at this difficult time, by continuing to provide this valuable support.”

Mrs Prendergast urged all parents and carers who feel their children may be entitled to receive benefits-related Free School Meals, but who have not yet applied for them, to visit the website – www.kent.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals – as soon as possible so that no one misses out on this scheme.

Schools are issuing the vouchers to eligible pupils from this week, as they have done for previous holidays, so parents and carers should direct any enquiries to their child’s school.

15 Comments

  1. This is good but it doesnt help those that dont qualify.

    I was never able to qualify for my kids as I learnt a couple of hundred quid above the threshold. Which meant we as a family were worst of than most !.
    I understand they has to be a cut off point. But for those just above it it can be extremely hard to make ends meet

  2. you will not be allowed to spend the voucher where you get best value………….. in Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet CIC

    • Well done? They’ve CUT the funding, last summer it was £90 (£15 a week). Food prices have gone up (as has the cost of fuel/transport to get the food) and they’ve reduced the help by £40, almost half! But yes, well done I’m sure they’ll be no kids in poverty now thanks to the government, I guess they can always eat their jubilee celebration books if times get hard.

        • Here’s the thing, a quick Google sir shows that your info is far from correct , it’s estimated about 1million people worldwide and 30,000 people in uk died from the 1986 flu pandemic. Now, covid-19 has killed 6.37million worldwide and 182,000 in the uk. As you can see these numbers are much higher. We’re also having huge price increases on pretty much everything. If you are going to try and be smart Atleast use the resources around you to come up with factual numbers as yours was 4million off.

      • I agree. I am going to really struggle throughout the summer to provide food now. I struggled so much before and last year was a godsend but now it’s going back to budgeting. I am a student and also work before people start to judge!

  3. Any idea why it’s less for the summer holidays than all other holidays? It’s £15 a week for other school holidays but £8.33 a week during the summer holidays.

  4. It works out I’m £80 worse off with KCC issuing the vouchers, it used to be £15 a child a week so I would have got £180 for 2 children.
    Cost of everything now its going to be hard going.

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