Fife to fund free school meals to help families fight hunger

Fife is facing up to the new challenge of providing food to prevent kids going hungry during the summer holidays.

Councillors have agreed to fund free school meals until July 1 to get families through the rest of lockdown.

And the policy and co-ordination committee has also instructed officers to come up with a plan which brings together its successful Cafe Inc project and the work being done by a host of frontline community groups.

Holiday hunger has become a huge issue in Fife in recent years.

Cafe Inc was created to ensure children got fed when schools were closed.

Over 50,000 meals were served up last summer, and that number rose to 90,000 when the project ran across autumn and Christmas breaks.

But the impact of social distancing has prompted questions over hope Cafe Inc can work - and if it duplicates the work being done in communities.

Councillors also have to weigh up the costs of it and funding free school meals.

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Families in over 11.200 homes are now getting £11.50 per week from the local authority towards weekly food bills - that’s a weekly bill of £130,000.

Councillors now want to extend that until the end of term at a cost of £700,000.

Councillor David Ross, co-leader, said: “We are not prescribing which format of direct payment and provision through voluntary sector or council are viable. We are giving officers the opportunity to come up with a hybrid that delivers and suits the needs of Fife best.”

One possible solution could be the structures in place in Kirkcaldy.

Councillor Neil Crooks, who convenes the local area committee, said it was plugged into the needs of the community.

“The way things have been approached in Kirkcaldy has been immense,” he said.

“They spotted gaps in the system, and realised people phoning for food had multiple issues which came out when they spoke to them.

“That extra support has been feature of what has happened in Kirkcaldy.

“We have Kirkcaldy Foodbank which is pressured all the time, Kirkcaldy YM, the Cottage Centre Linton Lane and Greener Kirkcaldy all distributing food.

“We have local resilience teams in Burntisland and Kinghorn because they had planned for it - and that immediate response has been very helpful for the local community and it has had great support from council

“The people who have engaged have gone way above normal expectations of our staff. It has been phenomenal.”

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