St Andrew's Clubmoor Feast of Fun - 200 packed lunches to help tackle holiday hunger
Two hundred free packed lunches were given out to children and parents to help tackle holiday hunger, as part of a week of Feast of Fun activities at St Andrew’s church in Clubmoor.
St Andrew’s was among 24 churches to receive a Feast of Fun grant from Together Liverpool, to host food related activities across the Diocese of Liverpool area, during February half term 2021.
Local families were invited to come along to St Andrew’s church hall to collect their packed lunch each day, including a sandwich, fruit and other treats.
The project was aimed at supporting families who would have struggled to provide food during half term for their children, including regular St Andrew's Pantry members who were invited by text, and children from the local Roscoe primary school.
The packed lunches were a continuation of the support St Andrew’s offers to local people through pantry following a similar half term packed lunch scheme in October, for families who would normally access free school meals.
The packed lunches were a continuation of the support St Andrew’s offers to local people through pantry following a similar half term packed lunch scheme in October, for families who would normally access free school meals.
The church also held a pancake party attended by 35 households on Zoom, who all received a free party pack with pancake mix, fresh fruit, lemon and sugar, plus an activity booklet, balloons and craft resources. In total 18 volunteers from St Andrew’s were involved over the week of activities.
Vicar at St Andrews’ Revd James Green said participants benefitted through being able to access healthy food for their households, being provided with free activities during a school holiday, and an improvement to their general sense of wellbeing through engaging with others.
He said: “The lunches were particularly trying to tackle holiday hunger. Struggling to access nutritious food during school holidays puts a strain on the whole family and makes relationships and quality time together more difficult.
“We offered a packed lunch to adults as well as children recognising that for parents to care for their family to the best of their ability they need to be well fed too.
“We try to do in a way that’s not stigmatising. We just let people know they are available and they can come to collect. It tends to be pretty self-selecting and people come if they have a need.”
St Andrew’s runs one of seven Your Local Pantry projects in Merseyside, providing a week’s worth of shopping to members for £3.50 each week.
Revd Green said: “Our touch points with our community have been limited a lot by the pandemic.
“What we are hearing through the pantry is the work we are doing tackling food insecurity is making a difference. We know that holiday hunger is an issue and for the church to be part of the response to that that is important to us.
“It is giving people access to food where they wouldn’t have had it otherwise so that’s why we wanted to do it.
“It is also about supporting people through loneliness and isolation. This provision was targeted at families that would have struggled to provide food during half term for their children. There was also the benefit of a brief social interaction when the bags were being picked up.”
Thirty-five households received pancake party packs and nineteen were not church households.
Revd Green said: “Our hope was to gather families together to eat food and have fun, as well as give them the chance to connect with the wider church community on Zoom.
“By providing them with a game and craft we hope to make their times together easier and take the pressure of parents having to think about how to entertain everybody. The funding facilitated this and made it possible.”