Free School Meals. Holiday Provision

Please find attached information from Telford and Wrekin about the extension of the free school meal breakfast scheme.

Date: 23/10/2020

Dear Parent

We are writing to you today to reassure you following headlines you may have seen about the
unsuccessful campaign led by footballer Marcus Rashford asking Government to further extend
provision of free school meals into the Christmas school holidays.

We want to be clear that Telford & Wrekin Council is already doing what Marcus Rashford was seeking.
We are committed to provide extra support for families eligible for free school meals due to financial
circumstances. This is part of our commitment to Protect, Care and Invest in our borough and its
residents.

We are doing this because we recognise that, with extra costs such as providing meals, childcare and
reduced working hours leading to lower income, school holidays are a real financial challenge for some
families. There’s growing evidence too that this impacts on the health and wellbeing of some families
during the holidays.

That’s why due to the extra pressures created by the pandemic, we’ve set up the following scheme to
provide extra support for those who are eligible:
Breakfast packages

Available borough wide, this provides children in Years 3-11 eligible for free school meals with free
weekly breakfast parcels covering 5 days a week.

During the summer, this scheme delivered almost 44,000 breakfasts to children in Telford and Wrekin.
We have now extended this to the end of the Christmas holidays and are aiming to extend again through
until Easter if possible, working with our partners.

The borough is covered by 11 providers – for more details on who these providers are, how to register
and to check which ward you live in please visit www.telford.gov.uk/breakfast
We hope this reassures you that this extra support in the borough will continue. This is on top of the
Council’s work at the start of lockdown to continue to provide a packed lunch for those in receipt of Free
School Meals weeks before any Government support was available.

If you qualify for Free School Meals, you may also qualify for a range of other benefits, and with many
people’s income being affected by the Pandemic, you can check that you are receiving what you’re
entitled to at www.telford/gov.uk/coronavirus/support
If you would like to volunteer, get involved or make a donation to help with this scheme, please
contact grant.applications@telford.gov.uk