Early this morning a friend of mine spotted a document that was published by the BBC News which is entitled “More councils drop holiday food voucher schemes for Christmas” and the text in his tweet is part of what can be obtained from the piece which is here. Just over a week ago in the House of Lords Elizabeth Berridge who is a Conservative member of the House of Lords asked a question and it was responded by Diana Barran who is one of the DfE Ministers. Although the question and response was focused on School themes, it is clearly vital that the Government must respond to Councils. The BBC session included this aspect

The Local Government Association (LGA) said councils were not being given enough money from the government to run schemes in areas where a high proportion of children received free school meals.

So here is the question and answer from the House of Lords back on 13th December.

EB: My Lords, my noble friend will be aware that during a cost of living crisis, free school meals are essential during term time. However, at short notice during the cold weather there can be the closure of schools or a failure in the building. So can my noble friend confirm that there is resilience within the system to stand up vouchers very quickly for those children? The lack of a meal for one, two or three days can be essential.

DB: I commend my noble friend for the work she did during the pandemic when she was standing up very flexible responses. We continue to work very closely with schools to ensure that children get the support they need.

What is very evident is that the Foodbanks and FareShare charities are working incredibly hard at the moment to provide as much food as can be obtained for the people who are known to need food.