Bridgend County Borough Council has received formal notification from Welsh Government that a scheme designed to support children during the school summer holidays has ended as planned.
Known as the ‘holiday hunger’ scheme, the initiative was launched while the Covid-19 global pandemic was in effect to help struggling families cope during holidays and half-term in the face of both the pandemic and the Cost of Living crisis.
It included the use of digital vouchers, food parcel deliveries and more at an approximate cost of £714,000 – money that the council was able to claim back from Welsh Government thanks to the scheme.
Commenting on the end of the scheme, a Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Extending free school meals into the holidays was a time-limited crisis intervention in response to the pandemic.
“We continue to support families through the cost-of-living crisis, and have invested more than £3.3bn in programmes and schemes which put money back into people’s pockets.”
Cllr Jon Paul Blundell, Cabinet Member for Education, said: “Unfortunately, without the backing of Welsh Government in place for this initiative, Bridgend County Borough Council is unable to fund the scheme alone.
“Supporting approximately 6,400 eligible pupils for the full six-week period of summer 2023 would cost in excess of £750,000, and this is money that the council simply does not have.
“Instead, with Welsh Government funding we are focusing our efforts on schemes such as the newly launched Food Sufficiency programme, which supports community organisations in the county borough who are working to ensure people do not go hungry, and the school-based Food and Fun initiative, which helps families to meet the cost of feeding and caring for children during the summer period.
“In addition, we are also continuing to roll out Welsh Government’s Universal Primary Free School Meals offer and are on track to offer the latest phase of this to more than 1,600 primary school pupils who will be starting Year Three this September.
“This will be in addition to the 4,600 pupils who are already receiving free school meals in Reception, Year One and Year Two at schools across the county borough.
“We are also working to ensure that the offer can be provided to nursery pupils by January 2024, quickly followed by Year Four pupils in April, and finally to pupils in Year Five and Year Six by September.
“As a council, we are constantly seeking new ways in which we can support the physical and mental wellbeing of our pupils, and will continue to work with partner organisations in order to deliver this.”
