MORE than 26,000 children benefited from Glasgow’s holiday food programme over the summer.

The £1.4m project, funded by the city council and delivered by third sector groups, provided over 231,000 prepared meals and 356,000 food parcels in a 30-day period.

Introduced in 2018 as part of efforts to combat food poverty, organisations delivering holiday programmes also offer meals to children.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which stopped groups running their usual activities, adapted services were provided, including delivery and collection of pre-packed meals, packed lunches and food parcels.

READ MORE: Holiday hunger project feeds thousands of kids

The council also provided Farmfoods vouchers to those eligible for free school meals. Almost £115,000 was spent on vouchers.

City Treasurer Ricky Bell said: “This is a reminder of what happens in Glasgow during a crisis – people come together to help and support each other. A lot of collaboration work went on behind the scenes.

“We appreciate a number of organisations were not able to deliver their usual programme of indoor and outdoor activities due to the pandemic. However, the majority were able to make use of the council funding and adapt their services to ensure essential food was available to families during the most challenging of times.

“The children’s holiday food programme is part of our on-going work to tackle food poverty and inequality and we will continue to support and work with third sector organisations to deliver this invaluable programme again.”

A report, which will be presented to councillors next week, states for many children in Glasgow, free school meals are the only nutritious, balanced meal they can rely on each day.

The holiday food programme ran on 30 days between June 28 and August 13 in the summer. It had previously ran for 10 days in spring and was later provided for five days in October. It will next take place over three days in February.

Activity packs were also delivered to families, including games and arts and crafts and for cake-making and plant-growing.

In feedback provided to the council, one recipient said: “The camps have helped so much.

“The food has taken away a worry I have had every day since I lost my job and knowing that my son is safe and happy every day at camps is great.”

Others said the scheme had “taken the pressure off” and one organisation added: “Keeping in contact with our families, even if it was at their front door helped us check on their mental health and well-being and make referrals or sign-post them to other support available.”

The figures have been produced from 65 of 69 third sector groups, with two unable to deliver their programmes due to Covid-19 and two more unable to report their statistics due to staff shortages.

Funding applications for the next year of the programme have now closed, with recommendations set to be considered by councillors later this month.