Sir, – I am deeply concerned about the issue of holiday hunger and the level of food poverty that children and young people will experience over the Christmas period.
Government must do everything in its power to ensure suppliers and schools have the resources to deliver this vital intervention in the face of rising costs.
At the Children’s Rights Alliance, we recently received a generous donation of €70,000 to help support our members providing direct food support to the children and families they work with in the run-up to and over the Christmas holiday period.
We anticipated having a significant response to the funding; however, the actual number of applications has been overwhelming and sadly provides a powerful insight into the concerns that many schools and community organisations about children going hungry this Christmas.
After the passing of the closing date for applications we had received 45 applications. The combined ask from these applications is for funding of €418,000 – almost six times what we can cover.
This would meet the need 9,564 children and 5,737 adults (parents). The numbers are heart-breaking and one of the most striking things to me is that half of these applications for support have come from national schools.
It is clear that teachers are acutely aware of the issue of food poverty in their classrooms and how worried they are for children and families without this vital in-school meal support over the Christmas period.
The cost-of-living crisis continues to have a major impact on children, particularly those in vulnerable households. We urge the Government to consider putting in place an expanded school meals programme during holiday time.
The existing community infrastructure and relationships with schools and youth services is already there and could be utilised to ensure support reaches those who need it the most. – Yours, etc,
TANYA WARD,
Chief Executive,
Children’s Rights Alliance,
Smithfield,
Dublin 7.