Attendances high at holiday food hubs

Council reveal 5000 meals given to kids over summer

There were more than 2500 attendances at Coatbridge’s four holiday food hubs during the seven- week summer school break.

North Lanarkshire Council officials confirmed that a total of 2561 visits were made to Club 365 centres at Coatbridge, Charlotte Toal, Old Monkland and Townhead community centres between June 19 and August 14.

The programme, first piloted in the town during this year’s Easter holiday, provides youngsters entitled to free school meals with a main meal – as well as a three-hour activities session – on every non-school day of the year, including weekends and public holidays.

Council officials note that the number of summer attendances is a combined total which represents individual children taking part in the daily sessions on multiple occasions during the holidays; analysis of the Easter project showed 900 attendances from 143 individual children, “the vast majority [doing so] for multiple days, and many consistently across the holiday period”.

Education convener Frank McNally told the Advertiser last month: “We’ve given out 5000 meals at nine hubs [across North Lanarkshire] this summer, and all the children are given food home as well, such as bags of sandwiches, fruit and water.

“I think we’ve been surprised by the level of uptake – given that this project effectively started as a conversation in January and is really just getting off the ground – the level of interest is quite phenomenal.

“We’re getting testimonials from parents saying that this is making a significant impact and it’s running even better than I envisaged – there’s a clear link between the food and activities, and the staff are absolutely first class and giving tremendous support.”

North Lanarkshire’s £415,000 initiative to tackle “holiday hunger” was overwhelmingly approved at an education committee meeting in February.

Following the Coatbridge pilot, it is now being rolled out across the whole authority area, with summer provision being extended to include Bellshill and Wishaw, while four hubs in Airdrie are due to begin operating during the 2019 Easter holiday.

Staff from the council’s catering, transport, facilities, active schools and community learning and development teams are all involved, along with colleagues from Culture NL.

Councillor McNally previously told the Advertiser: “We don’t want to be in a position where we’re having to do this, but we have to step up to the mark and do something about child poverty.

“There are some children leaving school on Friday and not having a meal until they return on Monday – that’s an absolute disgrace, totally unacceptable and the council will do all it can to tackle that.

“School holidays and weekend periods can place significant strain on the budgets of many families in our area and research has shown that this has a knockon effect on school attainment with subsequent implications for a child’s life prospects.

“Our proposals to tackle weekend and holiday hunger are the most ambitious in the country; [they] promote healthy eating and address some of the symptoms of poverty for children who need it most.”

High demand Councillor McNally says the council have been “surprised by the level of uptake”