The school holiday’s can be a tricky time for many families, particularly those who are struggling financially. There are many reasons why a family may be having financial difficulties, such as the impact of the cost of living crisis, parents being unable to work due to their mental or physical health, a family is seeking asylum, or struggling due to benefit caps. When a family is having financial difficulties, it can impact all areas of their life, including not having access to or enough fresh and healthy food, known at food poverty.
Recent figures released by The Department for Work and Pensions (March 2024) revealed that 4.3 million children are living in relative poverty after housing costs (30% of all children in the UK). This is 100,000 more than last year, meaning that the need for practical and financial support is greater than ever. With these figures in mind, Welcare have been working hard to try and find new and innovative ways that we can support our families and have teamed up with Feed London.
Feed London are a food poverty charity who provide food boxes in the school holidays with fresh, healthy ingredients, recipe cards and supermarket vouchers. At the end of the summer term Welcare was gifted 20 of these fantastic boxes to give to some of our south London families. The boxes were delivery one of the hottest days of the year and even though it was difficult to do it in the heat, our dedicated staff team worked together to get all the boxes delivered – a big thank you to all of our staff who organised the logistics and helped on the day.
It has been a huge success, and not only have we been able to provide our families with delicious and healthy meals, but have given them the ability to create wonderful memories of cooking and eating together over the holidays, all of which would not have been possible without Feed London’s help. Thank you so much Feed London for all the fantastic work that you do and for partnering with us to help our south London families. Our families have been so grateful and feedback has been fantastic to receive.
A parent who received a box: ‘Thank you so much for the food box and voucher, we have already been putting bits of the food to good use and our son has been loving it.’
A teacher from a school that we have been working in: ‘Just to say that all the recipients were extremely grateful. Thank you for thinking of us.’
If you would like to support the work of Welcare and help us make a difference to the lives of even more children and families, please consider donating.
