A new holiday activity and food programme has been launched for young people across Salford after being awarded over £1.37 million.
Salford City Council have launched the programme for children between the age of four to sixteen to enjoy the Easter holidays.
The holiday activity and food (HAF) programme has been launched through The Department for Education award of £1,375,560 and is scheduled to run from Monday 7 April to Friday 25 April.
According to the Department for Education, the HAF programme has provided 10.7 million HAF days to children and young people in the UK since 2022- heliping to provide free fun and healthy meals to children eligible for free school meals.
It will also provide food for children who are at risk of food insecurity and meet specific criteria.
The funding will also go toward 2,300 places per day over 24 days of provision (four at Easter, sixteen at summer and four at Christmas) for activities.
The activities will be free for eligible families will be able to see what’s available and book a place for the upcoming Easter holidays here .
And have been designed to combine fun, learning and healthy meals with activities ranging from sports, music, arts and crafts and theatre trips.
For the programme the council has partnered with local community and voluntary organisations and is working with trusted and experienced catering company Citywide.
Citywide will play a pivotal role in delivering this large-scale operation, as well as providing meals during activities, and prepared home-cooked food boxes.
During the 2024 Christmas, the programme saw 1,900 bookings and 81% attendance, which included provision of 1,700 meals and 1,533 take and make boxes for families to cook at home.
And this Easter holidays, the catering company will be ensuring that families are supported to ensure that no child goes hungry during school holidays.
Councillor Jim Cammell, Lead Member for Children’s and Young People’s Services at Salford City Council said: “It’s great to see this programme returning for Easter, following a successful scheme at Christmas.
“This initiative is vital in fostering community links and partnerships that address the need for support to families during the holidays and creating meaningful experiences for the young people of Salford.”
He continued: “With research showing that the school holidays can be pressure points for some families, free holiday programmes like HAF can have a positive impact on children and young people by providing stability, structure and support whilst having fun, healthy food and physical activity.”
More information for the programme can be found here.
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