A west Belfast foodbank says it will roll out a ‘breakfast club’ to help struggling families feed their children over the summer.
Foodstock has been working in collaboration with several nursery, primary and secondary schools in the area to help remove the barrier of hunger in education.
While pupils are on the countdown to their summer break, many parents are worrying about how to feed them.
Councillor Paul Doherty, who set up Foodstock in 2019, said: “Having conversations with principals and parents we know children are going into school hungry and that’s a shocking indictment of where we are in 2024.
“This week is our final week of the term providing breakfast clubs and healthy snacks at schools, which not only gives children access to food that’s going to keep them healthy, but allows them to be more focused in class and gives them a real head start in their education.
“We will be continuing these at our Solidarity Hub over the summer months and will be back for the new term in September.”
Financial support of £27 per child each fortnight to help 93,000 pupils entitled to free school meals and their families during the holidays came to an end in March last year.
The families of about 28% of all school pupils in Northern Ireland were eligible for the grant.
“It’s something that we feel is going to be a big issue over the summer,” he said. “We see holiday hunger every summer and now that the grant to ease those pressures has been removed it’s going to cause a lot of stress on parents.
“With schools finishing for summer we have set up a breakfast club here at our hub to continue that work and create a friendly environment for parents and children to come for a free breakfast and try and get through what is a very difficult time for so many parents right across this community.”
During lockdown Foodstock originated as a makeshift foodbank in Mr Doherty’s garage and eventually transformed into the multi purpose space at 151 Andersonstown road providing food, advice and other resources including a pre-loved uniform hub.
Now in its fifth year it provides school uniform items for nursery, primary school and secondary school pupils.
Mr Doherty said demand has been growing as the cost of living crisis continues to take hold.
“We had people coming to the door saying they’re are struggling to put food on table because of the costs of those uniforms,” he explained. “You’re talking £90 for a school blazer and £65 for a school PE kit and it’s that inaction on these areas like school uniforms that people are really struggling with.
“So many working people having to avail of schemes like this because of cost of living when putting children through education.”
Food donations and uniforms in good condition can be donated to the hub at the Andersonstown base.
The Department of Education has been contacted for comment.
