Your Holiday Hub

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Supporting children, young people and families

During term time, schools can help to ease the financial pressure on families by providing a free lunch for children and young people through a scheme called ‘Free School Meals’.

In Bristol, 1 in 5 children qualify for Free School Meals. However, outside of term time, families do not have access to this support.

To address this, Feeding Bristol have been trying to make sure that children and young people eligible for Free School Meals also have access to food during school holidays.

‘Healthy Holidays’

In 2018, Feeding Bristol launched ‘Healthy Holidays’, a city-wide initiative addressing food insecurity experienced by children and young people during the summer holidays.

Healthy Holidays was very much a Bristol City initiative. Between 2018 and 2020, the project evolved and was delivered through a collaboration between groups and organisations in the play and youth sector, surplus food provision, and local businesses that provided much needed donations and volunteering.

This city-wide collaboration lay the foundation for Bristol’s ‘Your Holiday Hub’ funded by the Department for Education’s ‘Holiday Activity and Food’ (HAF) programme.

Holiday Activity and Food programme (HAF)

Since 2021, the Department for Education has funded the ‘Holiday Activity and Food’ programme. This programme has enabled Bristol to come together during the school holidays and reach more children and young people than ever before with healthy food and activities.

Building on the Healthy Holidays collaboration, HAF funding has enabled a larger network of groups and organisations to get involved. Your Holiday Hub taps into existing groups, organisations and assets in the city to create an infrastructure around holiday provision, with the aim of leading to longer-term sustainable impact across the city.

Feeding Bristol work in partnership with Bristol City Council, BAND, Playful Bristol, and FareShare South West to coordinate Your Holiday Hub. The partnership support groups and organisations across the city to deliver activities, food, and food education to children and young people eligible for free school meals.