UNICEF for the first time in its 70-year history has started an emergency answer to assist the country feed children in the UK affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
The United Nation’s agency for kids is to award grants to 30 local businesses through its “Food Power for Generation COVID” initiative.
One of the organisations is School Food Matters which will deliver 18,000 breakfasts to 25 schools in the south London district of Southwark for the Christmas vacation and besides this they would provide 6,500 during the February half-term. This will support 1,800 families.
“The coronavirus pandemic have an extreme impact on children’s lives — their assistance systems torn apart, their studies lost, their access to food impacted,” Anna Kettley, director of programmes at UNICEF UK.
“Through these grants, we are hoping to reach the UK’s most defenceless children and their families and assure they receive the vital food support they need to eat well. Our goal is to ensure that children remain the coronavirus crisis — and thrive beyond it,” she added.
According to UNICEF, 2.4 million British kids already grow up in food-insecure households and over a fifth of these families with children have gone hungry throughout the lockdown due to financial problems.
Stephanie Slater, founder and CEO of School Food Matters said in a statement that “the answer to our summertime Breakfast Boxes programme has given us that families are seeking and many were suffering the grim truth of a two-week winter break that too without access to free school meals and the outrage of having to depend on food banks to support their children.”
“By giving our Breakfast Boxes, organisations know that their children will have a glorious start to the day with a wholesome nutritious breakfast.