Fife Council’s innovative holiday lunch club served up an astounding 6,651 meals during the Easter holidays.
This was a pilot scheme to provide a midday meal for families in an attempt to combat holiday hunger.
At its launch, housing and communities convener Judy Hamilton said it was a sad fact many children in Fife go hungry during the school holidays.
“We don’t think this is acceptable for any of our children and as part of our drive towards a Fairer Fife we are putting investment in place to try to combat this,” she added.
The pilot invited children, young people and families for a free lunch at various venues in the Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath areas.
The Café Inc scheme was agreed by councillors as part of this year’s budget in an attempt to cut poverty.
Fife Council administration has invested £400,000 in providing free lunches to children and families during the school breaks.
The test scheme, which also saw Easter activities organised in some areas, was open to all families who struggled financially over the school holidays.
The council provides free school meals during term time for more than 9,000 pupils across Fife.
Labour councillor Mrs Hamilton said it was known there was a lot of pressure on all families during the school holidays.
“We trialled this in an initial, localised way, which was open to all families, with many taking up the opportunity to meet and eat together.
“I visited the scheme during the holidays and heard first-hand the difference it really made to families.
“I am delighted that the pilot scheme has proven to be so popular and uptake has been so high.”
She paid tribute to staff across many services of the council and the many volunteers involved in these early stages of the initiative.
“Their hard work and dedication really got this off the ground.
“Thank you also to the families who came along to share a bite to eat and join in the fun.”
Mrs Hamilton said the pilot scheme would now be analysed along with the uptake.
A full report will then come before the committee in June.
