Morrisons: Supermarket chain helps struggling Sheffield families feed their children over summer

It comes as the deepening cost of living crisis hits parents with their children now home for the six week holiday – a challenging period at the best of times.

The Star reported last week that Sheffield city council has offered £50 worth of vouchers per child this summer compared to the £90 of support given last year. This is despite soaring costs making this the most challenging summer in years.

MORE: Energy bill discount scheme 2022: Who in Sheffield is eligible for new £400 fuel rebate & how to receive it?

In a bid to ease the burden, Morrisons held a food bank drop to help two local food banks – Winn Gardens and Stannington.

MORE: UK fuel prices: only 1 in 10 petrol stations bring down petrol and diesel cost to fair price, claims RAC

Over 70 trays of food were donated to help families through a summer where they won’t be able to benefit from free school meals.

Community champion Denise Mills said: “I’m absolutely blown away by the generosity of our amazing customers, donations ranging from individual items to full bags of shopping, our customers really care about their community, l really can’t thank them enough.”

According to data from fareshare, three million children risk going hungry this summer.

Morrisons has announced a £100,000 donation, pledging to partner with local schools, community groups and The Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) in a bid to ease the growing issue of children going hungry.

Rebecca Singleton, Customer and Community Director at Morrisons, said: “Supporting local communities is incredibly important to us and we know that the summer holidays can be a difficult time for families concerned about holiday hunger, that’s why we’re donating £100,000 worth of nutritious food to support the needs of local clubs across the country to help prevent families from experiencing holiday hunger this summer.”

Morrisons Community Champions will work in their local areas to ensure the food goes to those who need it most.

Earlier this year Morrisons donated 15,000 lunchboxes a day to help hungry children during the half term holiday and are going further this summer as the cost of living crisis escalates.

The issue of free school meals and the importance of the scheme to low-income families was highlighted in 2020 by a campaign led by Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford.

Rashford’s campaign highlighted how families struggled without free school meals during the COVID-19 lockdowns that saw schools close

Neither of Tory leadership contenders currently vying to become Britain’s next Prime Minister have spoken on the issue of free school meals or childhood poverty during their campaigns.

Labour’s Shadow Levelling Up secretary Lisa Nandy promised that if in power her party would extend free school meals over the holiday as a cash transfer in order to support families this summer.

Speaking at a Northern Agenda event in Leeds last week she pointed to Labour’s Children Recovery Plan, designed to help children in the north who disproportionately suffer from poverty and who spent longer out of school than kids in the south due to local lockdowns imposed during the pandemic.