Govt funds for holiday hunger pilots welcome

“Ensuring that children have a healthy, active and positive start to life is of critical importance to the well-being of everyone in our city and we know that grassroots community organisations play a significant role in this area.

We’ve seen what happens at the front-line when people go hungry, and have learned a lot through our Kitchen Social programme, working with over 100 community organisations targeting some of the hardest to reach children during the school holidays.

Through Kitchen Social, we aim to feed a minimum of 50,000 children across all 33 London boroughs by 2020 as well as support the current statutory efforts to achieve the positive educational, social and health benefits that holiday food provision would bring all young Londoners.

By the end of the 2017/18 academic year, we will have engaged 123 hubs across 24 boroughs and, on average, served 17,400 meals to 2,780 children and young people.

Kitchen Social is also a feature of the Mayor of London’s Food Strategy, has a network of corporate support, and offers funding and training to London’s unique infrastructure of grassroots organisations. We will also be evidencing our impact as part of a 3-year evaluation partnership with Northumbria University.

We welcome the DfE’s £2 million fund announcement today and look forward to sharing our learnings and experience with DfE appointed pilot schemes.”

Statement by Kim Chaplain, Director of Charitable Portfolio, Mayor’s Fund for London