New action plan to tackle holiday hunger in Fife

Fife is set to fund meals throughout summer to tackle the growing issue of holiday hunger.

The aim is to provide a mix of free school meals payments, and community provision to ensure no families go without as cries for help grow as a result of the lockdown.

Fife Council is set to discuss the issue at its policy committee meeting on Thursday after previously instructing officers to come up with a plan.

And unless extra funding comes from the Scottish Government, it will have to juggle resources to foot the bill.

Fife was allocated £2.254 million through the Scottish Government’s Food Fund to support free school meal payments and community food support.

But extra resources will be required to deliver measures to continue the current arrangements for payments to families in receipt of free school meals, and to tackle food insecurity over the summer period.

Councillors will need to find ways of covering a gap of £1.3m until the start of the autumn, but they are committed to providing support to families in need across the region.

The Community Food Resilience Plan will ensure that existing food providers have a stable and regular supply chain for their organisations.

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A host of third sector groups - including foodbanks - back up the council’s own emergency food supplies, and they are reporting an increase in demand as many individuals and families struggle financially due to being made redundant or facing significant reductions in income as a result of employment changes.

Several new community food provider projects have been established to provide assistance in this time of need.

They have been working to support people who are isolating, including the delivery or food parcels and the distribution of lunches, ready-made meals or food bags.

A report to councillors, from Michael Enston, executive director, said: “While direct payments are effective in ensuring that people have the funds to pay for food, there are concerns about the long term financial sustainability.

“There are also concerns that the longer the Council continues to provide direct payments, the more likely it is that people will become reliant on them.”

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