Around 5,100 children and young people who live in the Falkirk Council area will continue to benefit from free school meal provision over the summer holidays.
A meeting of Falkirk Council’s Emergency Executive recently agreed to:
- fund those in receipt of school clothing grants £3.50 per day over the summer holidays paid into bank accounts;
- continue to provide a grab and go lunch bag service from seven school critical childcare hubs for those families who are in need.
- continue to support and fund the Falkirk CVS Emergency Food Project which is run jointly between Falkirk Council’s Community, Learning and Development team along with a number of volunteer organisations distributing and delivering food packages to those most in need.
Chair of the Council’s Emergency Executive Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn said: “The free service we have been offering has been very well used over the past two months but with concerns over the increase in poverty due to COVID-19, we recognised that this need would continue over the summer break.
“The work of the CVS project has been vital in many local communities with dozens of volunteers helping get the food out as quickly as possible and providing a real lifeline to those in need. We have committed to continuing this project until at least the end of August 2020.”
“As we move on in dealing with the COVID-19 situation, it is clear that there are many difficulties ahead. However, supporting those who are in most need must always be our priority.”
Currently Falkirk Council is producing around 3,000 grab and go lunches every day for pupils. Funding for the project will come from the Scottish Government’s Food Fund allocation of £878k as well as existing Council budgets.