Holiday hunger is going to bite children hard this summer - The Irish News view

For those children who haven’t already said goodbye to the classroom, today will mark the last day of the school year and the start of the long summer break.

This brings its own challenges for children and parents alike. Many will have family holidays, summer schemes and day trips to look forward to, but not everyone is so fortunate.

It is depressing that there are children for whom the end of term marks the start not of carefree weeks of play and fun but of falling off a cliff edge into the jaws of nagging hunger.

That’s because those children entitled to free meals and the other vital assistance offered in the school environment, including breakfast clubs, now lose that support until the start of the new term in September.

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Distressingly, there are far too many parents who are already struggling financially and simply don’t have the extra resources to feed their children properly during the long summer months.

For all the talk from this deadbeat Tory government about how wonderful the economy now is because inflation has fallen and energy prices have settled, the cost of living crisis can’t be wished away. It’s still with us, continuing to crack the whip of hunger and poverty across the already-raw backs of hard-pressed families.

This emergency isn’t exercising Stormont politicians in the way it should. It certainly hasn’t been to the forefront of the parties’ general election manifestos, which have mostly offered a thin gruel of platitudes and soundbites.

As we emerged from Covid-19, there were important efforts to tackle the negative effects of the pandemic on children. Support targeted at disadvantaged pupils included a ‘holiday hunger scheme’ which provided 96,300 children with £27 a fortnight. That ended last year, another casualty of the lunk-headed DUP boycott.

The holiday hunger emergency isn’t exercising Stormont politicians in the way it should. It certainly hasn’t been to the forefront of the parties’ general election manifestos, which have mostly offered a thin gruel of platitudes and soundbites

The current education minister, the DUP’s Paul Givan, told the assembly in March that it would cost around £20 million a year to keep the scheme going. MLAs have chosen not to revive it.

Reports in The Irish News this week have highlighted the crisis. Today, we feature a west Belfast community hub, Foodstock, which is rolling out a breakfast club to help families feed their children this summer.

“We see holiday hunger every summer and now that the grant to ease those pressures has been removed it’s going to cause a lot of stress on parents,” explained Paul Doherty, who started the Andersonstown Road service during lockdown.

Meanwhile, Karen Mullan, manager of Foyle Foodbank in Derry, told us foodbank need in Northern Ireland had increased by 143% in the last five years.

This is an unconscionable state of affairs which needs urgently addressed. Has Stormont the empathy and compassion to support our vulnerable children?