Greater Manchester Combined Authority to provide additional support for ‘holiday hunger’

The combined authority will be providing 900 pre-paid cards to each council area for use in a range of supermarkets

Emergency Food Cards for children and young people will be funded by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority over the summer holidays as part of the No Child Should Go Hungry initiative.

Despite an extension to the government’s covid local support grant until the end of September, plus provision of holiday activities and food programme funding, the 10 Greater Manchester councils have identified a £5million funding gap in food provision for children and young people over the summer holidays.

Data from the January 2021 school census indicates around 26% of all school children  are eligible for free school meals, but there are also a significant number of children and families who are suffering from financial hardship and are not entitled to free school meals.

As a result, the combined authority will be providing 900 pre-paid cards to each council area for use in a range of supermarkets. Each card will be charged with £5 credit to enable young people in need to access food over the summer holidays.

The GMCA has also set up a funding platform to support the initiative to alleviate holiday hunger. Local charity Forever Manchester is providing GMCA with a Charitable Fund Management and grant-making service.

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham said: “Whilst I welcome the extension of the Covid Local Support Grant by the government, what I am hearing from councils in Greater Manchester is that more needs to be done to help young people at risk of going hungry over the summer holidays.

“We are stepping up additional support by providing 9,000 emergency food vouchers across the city region and setting up a platform for residents to donate to help tackle holiday hunger in Greater Manchester. I would like to thank all the organisations that have worked with us to support our No Child Should Go Hungry campaign. We worked closely with the Co-op when we launched the emergency food Vouchers last October and have been working with partners such as Huggg and Forever Manchester to be able to set with up additional support for this summer and the future.   

“By building on what we have learnt from reducing homelessness and rough sleeping in Greater Manchester we want to build a strong, cross-society No Child Should Go Hungry campaign to tackle food poverty and holiday hunger as a long-term issue.”

The Mayor of Greater Manchester and GMCA will work closely with partners in each local authority area, such as voluntary and charity organisations, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership and local businesses to make sure that there is a collaborative approach to tackling holiday hunger. 

On top of the extra support being put in place in Greater Manchester, residents are encouraged to access support that is already available, such as the Healthy Start Vouchers. If you are pregnant or have children under the age of four you could get free vouchers or payments every four weeks to spend on things like cow’s milk, fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables and infant formula milk.

You can find out more information about eligibility and how to apply for Healthy Start Vouchers here:

• www.healthystart.nhs.uk/how-to-apply/

To donate to help people who may be experiencing holiday hunger, please visit: No Child Should Go Hungry Fund