Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Cafe owner’s kids meal vow
A CAFE is promising to feed children here throughout half-term and beyond despite struggling due to the coronavirus restrictions.
Hannah Parke – co-owner of Edge Coffee in Holywood, Co Down – told the Mirror “no child in Northern Ireland should ever be going to bed at night feeling hungry”.
The support follows Marcus Rashford’s campaign to end food poverty for children as the UK government rejected calls to extend free school meals over the holidays.
The Tory government has refused to extend the benefit to kids in England.
Hannah said: “I have four children of my own and we are in a position where we can feed our children.
“A lot of people cannot afford to do that so anything we can do to help we will certainly do that.
“Think of all the kids throughout the UK that might be going to bed hungry after the Government voted not to feed them over half-term.
“That is additional pressure for parents trying to make ends meet. Potentially now we have three weeks of children not getting their meals every day and that is the main meal a lot of children in Northern Ireland and across the UK will have in their day.
”My mother-in-law works in a school and she told me recently that even the children who do qualify for a free meal, only 90 out of 134 will get their meal every day over the halfterm. It’s just heartbreaking.”
Hannah, who runs the cafe with husband William Parke, said she has a list of other local businesses looking to join in and help.
She added: “If this could relieve a little bit of pressure then why not. We are open in a restricted capacity now due to the new regulations.
“We’ve had Eighty One, which is also a local cafe in Holywood, donate food to us. They’ve had to close during this lockdown because a lot of their food wouldn’t travel well for takeaway and they’ve decided to donate it all to us.
“Alexander’s pub in the High Street had donated their milk so we can now offer parents hot tea and coffee while they wait for their children’s lunches.
“Oliver Jeffers and his family have also donated a week’s worth of fruit. The response has been amazing.
“We had a couple of people that came in to buy their coffee and doubled the price, that money will go straight back into the food we need for the children.”
And Hannah said there had already been a massive up-taking towards the new scheme.
She added: “It’s great to see because that is what it is all about.
“But it’s also very sad because I don’t think people realise how many families might be going through so much hardship within our communities.
”The people that have come through have been nothing but so thankful and we treat them like any other customer because that’s what they are to us.
”And that’s what I told all of the staff as well.
“When a customer comes in they order the food like anybody else would, it goes through the till as normal so nobody feels on the spot or having to ask for one of the free meals.
”They just have to ask for one of the children’s packs and it goes through as zero pounds, zero pence, they can see the chef making it and then it’s brought out in a takeaway bag just like any other order.
“It’s the bare minimum that anybody can do for another person.
“Nobody should have to go through holidays worrying about their children getting something nutritious to eat.
“And a child shouldn’t be going through any day without getting a proper meal.
“I think it’s just the least we could do.”