12 Days of Christmas: Holiday Hunger Facts Infographic

This Christmas holidays many children in Wales will have gone without regular meals.

The impact of their hunger will affect them long after they return to school in January.

We’re determined to end the growing problem of holiday hunger in Wales. Below you’ll find 12 facts about holiday hunger and a factual infographic to show the scale of the challenge we’re facing. We invite readers to share this with their workplace, community group, chapel or church to spread the word.

We’re also delighted to have secured the support of the South Wales Food Poverty Alliance and Merthyr Valley Homes towards the costs of a seminar to help find solutions. The seminar will include presentations by leading food security campaigner, Lindsay Graham, along with practical examples of how to reduce holiday hunger across Wales.

Although we’ve made fantastic progress towards our funding target for this vital work, we still need another 77 people to put their hands up against holiday hunger for just £10 before 5th January.

Please help us by putting your hand up #againstholidayhunger today.

1. At least 65,000 children are at risk of holiday hunger in Wales because their free school meals stop in the holidays
   https://statswales.gov.wales/v/Euej
2. There are 170 non-school days in the year where Free School Meal (FSM) pupils can’t access their entitlement to a school lunch
   http://www.apse.org.uk/apse/index.cfm/members-area/advisory-groups/catering-school-meals/appg/reports/filling-the-holiday-hunger-gap/
3. It costs parents who usually rely on free school meals £30-£40 a week extra to feed a single child outside term time. http://www.frankfield.co.uk/upload/docs/Hungry%20Holidays.pdf
4. Children of families who are working in low-paid jobs are at risk of holiday hunger too. A week of holiday childcare costs an average of £124.23
   https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0907568218779130
5. 4% of families with children frequently run out of food, compared with 1% of households without children https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/foodsecurityinwales_0.pdf
6. Over a third of all food distributed by the Trussell Trust goes to children, with demand going up even higher during school holidays.
   https://www.trusselltrust.org/2018/08/03/call-donations-charity-reveals-rise-food-children-behind-increased-foodbank-need-holidays/
7. In July 2017, a foodbank in Swansea ran out of food due to holiday hunger
   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-40769471
8. The Welsh Government’s ‘Food and Fun’ schemes have places for less than 4% of children at risk of hunger
   – calculated from https://www.wlga.wales/food-and-fun-school-holiday-enrichment-programme
9. Nearly 1 in 5 children (17%) spend most of the day in school holidays either in bed or on the sofa when not at a Food and Fun scheme
   https://www.wlga.wales/SharedFiles/Download.aspx?pageid=62&mid=665&fileid=1550
10. A significant proportion of teachers and school staff notice children returning to school hungry on the first day after the holidays
    https://www.feedingbritain.org/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=f1305288-754c-4a73-80c9-094331cdd4e1
11. It can take a child who’s had a poor diet over the holidays 6 weeks to be ready to re-engage with school
    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0907568218779130
12. The Welsh Government’s expenditure on the School Holiday Enrichment Programme (£500,000 a year) is equivalent to 21p per adult in Wales – calculated as £500,000 divided by 2,283,821 people aged 16+

12 Days Holiday Hunger Facts infographic