Luke Pollard MP has launched Holiday Hunger Week, a campaign which will focus on getting free meals to schoolchildren after schools have broken up for the Summer. Holiday Hunger Week will start on Monday 19th July, and Luke will be spend the week raising awareness for the project across his social media channels and telling people how they can help out.

Holiday hunger is a crisis which will affect over 3 million kids across the UK this year. When term time ends, so do free school meals, and the Government’s decision to vote against year-round free food provision in October will leave a huge number of schoolchildren unprovided for over the holiday period.

Holiday Hunger Week will co-ordinate with various Plymouth charities, organisations and volunteers to make sure every child has access to free meals. There will be locations serving free school meals all summer long – including food banks, schools, and churches – and starting 19th July, Holiday Hunger Week will focus on raising awareness so that every family knows how to access them.

Luke Pollard MP said:

“A huge number of kids in Plymouth rely on free school meals, and it is simply not good enough that they are faced with going hungry over the summer holidays.

 

In one of the richest countries on earth, there is never a good enough excuse for kids going hungry. There is more than enough food to go round in Plymouth – Holiday Hunger Week is all about making sure it’s readily available to those who need it most.”

Any Plymouth residents or local organisations who could help out by donating food, or by offering their space as a collection point for food parcels, are encouraged to get in touch at with Luke’s team at luke.pollard.mp@parliament.uk.

Take a look at the Plymouth Food Aid Network Map, a new tool which shows exactly where you can go for free meals: https://pfan.adoddle.org/food-access-map.

To stay up to date with the Holiday Hunger Week campaign, follow Luke on his social media channels below.