Free meals and activities provided through Cardiff's multi-award-winning school holiday enrichment programme
Now in its ninth year, Cardiff's Food and Fun returns this year, with a record number of schools signed up to deliver the holiday enrichment programme.
The Food and Fun programme is reaching more children than ever this year28 schools including three secondary schools, 20 English medium primary schools, two Welsh medium primary schools, two special schools and one pupil referral unit will mean that more than 1700 pupils will have access to the multi-award-winning health and well-being provision during the school holidays.
With the aim of helping to ease the financial pressures on many families across the city during the summer break, Food and Fun provides healthy nutritious meals alongside opportunities to socialise, engage in physical activity and learn new skills.
The exciting programme includes educational, skills and sports provision provided by a number of city-wide partners and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board who support nutrition education sessions.
Cabinet member for education, employment and skills, Councillor Sarah Merry said: "I am delighted that the Food and Fun programme is reaching more children than ever this year, ensuring many families benefit by helping to ease the financial burden that the six-week school holiday brings.
"Importantly, those children who need it most, can access a wide range of activities which they may not usually have the opportunity to take part in, from sports, social engagement, healthy meals and food and nutrition sessions.
"This is thanks to successful partnership working and a team of dedicated staff, who play a key role in supporting positive health and wellbeing in children, aligning with our broader mission to embed children's rights into the fabric of the city following our achievement of becoming the first UK Child Friendly City in 2023."
In a bid to support the increased use of locally grown produce in school meals, Food and Fun is again taking part in the Welsh Veg in Schools project coordinated by Food Sense Wales.
Working together, local growers, Food Cardiff, Cardiff Council and the city's school meal supplier Castell Howell, are exploring how more local produce could be incorporated into school meals through engagement with children and the supply chain.
It builds on the commitment from Welsh Government to ensure that every primary aged child is offered a free meal and that where possible each meal is produced using locally sourced food, whilst supporting Cardiff's commitment to supply two portions of veg in all school lunches.
The Food and Fun scheme was developed by Cardiff's School Holiday Enrichment team in 2015 and was adopted by Welsh Government and rolled out to the rest of Wales during the following two years. It has been used as an example of Best Practice and has led to Wales being recognised as having the most advanced holiday provision in the UK.
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