Govan holiday food programme feeding hundreds of children

Govan Youth Information Project is one of 54 groups to receive awards from Glasgow City Council's Children's Holiday Food Programme to feed youngsters during the summer break.

It expects 120 young people at morning and afternoon sessions throughout the holidays. 

Around 23,500 children – nursery, primary and secondary aged children – will benefit from the holiday food programme this summer.

That comes with support of £1,665,024 from the council to organisations to deliver across all 23 wards throughout Glasgow.

Govan Youth Information Project grew from "one small shop front in Govan" in 1994 and has grown steadily ever since.

Kevin Burke, of the charity, said its aim was to help young people "in any way, shape or form we can".

Its initial holiday programme had 33 young people registered to it and that's grown to 120 per session now.

In previous holiday sessions they had to turn young people away as the sessions were oversubscribed so they moved to hire out Riverside Primary.

The group then borrowed crowd control barriers from Govan Housing Association because the queues outside to get in were so long. 

Kevin said: "It became like the old Arches back in the day when people tried to jump the queue to get in."

Children and teenagers queue from 8.40am to guarantee themselves a place in the 10am to noon session.

Sessions are help with support from outside agencies that come along to host events such as Make Do & Grow, SAMH, Rangers Charity Foundation, SWG3 and the Royal Navy.

Funding from Glasgow City Council pays for four sessional staff to help with the sessions, which are also supported by volunteers.

Last year 15 volunteers gave 695 hours of time.

Kevin added: "It is amazing what the people of Govan will give to help the young people.

"It's a great programme and brilliant that we get funding from Glasgow City Council as it helps us provide the additional benefit of food too.

"Some families are having a really hard time and we know that getting this food really helps them out."

As well as activities, young people are given a packed lunch to take away with them and a snack during the session.

Some young people, Kevin said, will take more than one lunch and staff allow them to as they know some families are struggling.

Glasgow's Children's Holiday Food Programme aims to address food poverty and help tackle barriers to adequate nutrition intake over holiday periods.

The additional funding is intended to boost existing activities being run by third sector organisations and for the majority of the money to be used to provide food.

Started in 2018, the scheme has seen nearly two millions meals and snacks distributed across the city with food parcels handed out during lockdown.

It aims to take pressure off families struggling during holiday times when young people miss out on food and activities in school.

The biggest amount was awarded to PEEK (Possibilities for Each and Every Kid), which was given £117,000 of the total amount for activities across Glasgow.

Sums for other organisations were much smaller with Geezabrek in the North East of the city taking £1386, Ruchazie Parish Church receiving £886, and Children 1st Croftfoot Primary granted £883.

Application for funding outstripped the available budget with 88 organisations across the city asking for £3,781,000 to deliver projects during the summer, October and February and spring holiday periods.

Councillor Ricky Bell, deputy leader and city treasurer and convener for financial inclusion, said: “Since summer 2018 we have served up almost two million meals, snacks and food parcels as part of the Glasgow’s Holiday Food Programme and working alongside our valued third sector organisations.

“Even during the pandemic we were still able to use the funding to meet the needs of our most vulnerable citizens and families and deliver food parcels across the city during the restrictions.

“I am delighted that this year we can return to a more normal service across all 23 wards in the city with our partners offering food and activities to youngsters in their communities over the summer period.

“The programme is now more important than ever to help address food poverty as the cost-of-living crisis affects each of us – by providing food and activities during the day to our families we can help alleviate a bit of this pressure over the schools holidays.”