Thousands of Salford children given food assistance over summer

Salford city council has helped provide financial assistance for food to just under 3,000 children over the summer, thanks to funds made available through the Salford Assist crisis scheme.

The scheme gives financial help over the summer to families where children get free school meals during term times.

Families who qualify were offered £30 in vouchers for each eligible child, enough to provide a daily lunch of sandwiches, soup and fruit.

This is the first council run scheme that tackles this issue specifically.

Deputy city mayor, Councillor Paula Boshell, said: “We had over 1000 families apply within the first 10 days which shows how valuable schemes like this are. By the end of the holidays we had had just over 2,100 applications covering around 42% of all the children eligible for free school meals.

“Other holiday schemes run by schools and partner organisations which included lunch with their programme served nearly 4,000 meals over the six weeks. It clearly shows the need in the city and my thanks go to all the volunteers who helped support this huge effort.”

The council aims to repeat the scheme again next year. Booth Charities based in Salford made a significant contribution towards the voucher scheme.