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For the first time, UNICEF has launched a national emergency response in the UK to help feed children affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
The UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian and development aid to children around the world has compared the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on young people to that of World War II.
Since the first national shutdown in March, the number of families struggling to earn a living and access food has risen as the economy has suffered and vital jobs have been lost.
In May this year, a YouGov survey commissioned by the Food Foundation charitable foundation found that 2.4 million children (17%) lived in food-insecure households. And in October it said an additional 900,000 children had signed up for free school meals.
UNICEF has now pledged a £ 25,000 grant to the charity School Food Matters, which will use the money to supply thousands of breakfast boxes during the two-week Christmas school holidays for vulnerable children and families in Southwark, London.
Each box will provide enough food for 10 breakfasts over the Christmas holidays.
Anna Kettley from UNICEF UK said: “We believe it is essential to come together at this time.
“This is the first time that we recognize that this is an unprecedented situation that requires everyone to roll up their sleeves, step in and support the children and families who need it most at this time.”
Donna Cadman lost her husband to motor neuron disease in August last year and says his death devastated her and her three children both emotionally and financially.
She describes her School Food Matters breakfast box as a “godsend.”
“It was difficult, I would go without food, I would skip meals and go with a sandwich or maybe a can of food, and I would give everything I had to the children and I would go without food for as long as possible,” he told Sky News.
“Raising three children is difficult and the school and charity really helped us a lot and I can’t thank you enough for what you have done for us.”
Reema-Gee Reid is the principal at Hollydale Elementary School in Southwark, one of the recipients of the lunch boxes.
She said: “Teachers have found that children concentrate better in class, and when they concentrate better, you can challenge them more knowing that they are not underperforming because they are simply hungry.”
For more than 70 years, UNICEF has worked in 190 countries around the world to try to reach the most vulnerable children.
The devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic mean that the UK has now been added to the list.
