‘It’s sad we have come to this’: Inside the schools turning into food banks to stave off holiday hunger

“Not long now,” says Marie, “The rush is coming.”

At the Henry Fawcett Primary School food bank, it’s the calm before the storm. Crates of produce line the school courtyard: satsumas, bananas, courgettes, carrots, cabbages. “These will be popular,” Marie, a teaching assistant who has spent “30 odd years” at the school, points to stacked boxes of Yakult drink. 

Will any of it be left in a few hours? She laughs. “Maybe a few potatoes.”

The food bank – supplied by food rescue charity The Felix Project – runs every Wednesday over the summer holidays. Serving parents and other members of the local community, it’s at the front-line of a growing issue: holiday hunger.

For most kids, the summer break represents freedom, an escape from homework and lessons. But it also means the cessation of key support like breakfast clubs and free school meals.

Read more:

• Childcare costs families £1,000 per child in the summer holidays: ‘It makes me feel sick’
• Number of people turning to food banks is shocking – but it’s the tip of the hunger iceberg
• I’m a mum impacted by the two-child limit on benefits. Labour must do what’s right and end it

Two-thirds (67%) of teachers in England expect children in their class to go hungry over the summer holidays, The Felix Project polling warns.

Nearly half of teachers worry one to three children in their class will go without food, while a further 13% think up to six children will be affected. Some 2% fear 10 or more.

“Oh you know, it is, it is hard for parents,” Marie says, shaking her head. “With the little bit of money they get, how can they feed their children? This [food bank] is a diamond, you know, for the parents. But oh, it’s sad. It’s sad that we have come to this.”

Primary-aged children are especially at risk. 73% of primary school teachers said they expected at least one child to struggle with hunger over the holidays – potentially affecting 390,000 children between the ages of four and 11.

Such damning statistics are “shocking but not surprising”, The Felix Project’s Charlie Neal says.

“When schools are closed and kids aren’t getting free school meals, they’re not getting the breakfast clubs, there’s just a lot of extra pressure on these parents to buy more food,” she told Big Issue. “But often, they just don’t have the money.”

Up to 675,000 school-aged children in England might go hungry this summer – nearly identical to 2024 levels.

Henry Fawcett is one of 28 Felix Project-supported schools in London that will remain open this summer to help distribute food to families. When Big Issue visits, the three volunteers expect roughly 50 attendees. 

One of the early arrivals is Oshine. Her three-year-old daughter – starting reception in September – chatters away as she throws pieces of fruit into her mum’s bag.

“I just get her to pick what she likes,” Oshine says. “But she likes to pick everything.”

The pair come every week. Initially, Oshine “felt uncomfortable” with the idea: “I was like, oh, you know, if everybody sees me going over here, do they think that I don’t have what I need at home, and I’m really struggling.”

“But then I realised that sometimes you are struggling, and you do need help. And it’s going to benefit my child. And help lots of people that are really going through it.”

In Oshine’s parents’ group, she hears “people just crying out for help. [They say] ‘Does anybody even have £2 for a couple cans of beans or just to get a slice of bread?’ It is really sad.”

Holiday hunger is not evenly distributed, the latest polling suggests. In England’s most deprived areas, just 9% of teachers think no child in their class will go hungry. In affluent areas, that figure rises to 41%.

Lambeth, where Henry Fawcett is located, is the eighth most deprived out of 32 London boroughs. More than a third of the borough’s children (39%) live in poverty.

Nutrition is also an issue: 23% of reception-year children and 39% of Year 6 pupils are overweight or obese, according to the most recent figures.

For Sharon, a student and mother-of-two, the food bank’s stock of fresh vegetables are a welcome addition to her pantry.

“I know how to turn it into magic. I just improvise all the time,” she told Big Issue.

“With the tools I have at home, I know I’m able to make crisps and stuff. It might not be the brands or whatever that they want. I don’t believe in junk.”

“Every little bit always helps. I know how to cook things, you know, make a carrot soup with five carrots.”

The school is situated in the shadow of The Oval, South London’s historic cricket ground. Stacks of metal fencing still line the surrounding streets: the day before the Big Issue’s visit, India beat England by six runs to win the fifth test.

If the shouts coming from over the fence are anything to go by, equally dramatic sporting contests are playing out just on the other side of the fence. “That’s the HAF,” Marie explains – the holiday activities and food programme. The TA wants to mention the deputy head Mrs Harrison, who she says has been instrumental in providing support and activities for the school community.

Launched in 2022, the HAF is the £200 million-a-year scheme established after a Marcus Rashford backed campaign to provide holiday support for vulnerable children. Marie wants to mention the deputy head Mrs Harrison, who she says has been instrumental in providing support and activities for the school community.

Local Dominque helps facilitate the program at Henry Fawcett: “I do my best to tire them out,” she says. It makes things easier for parents who are struggling not only to entertain but to feed their kids.

“Something has to change, because mums are actually going hungry because they’re making sure their babies are eating,” Dominique says. “How do they sustain that? How is that something they can continue doing? You’ve got parents out doing two, three jobs. It’s a lot. And is it going to get any better? I don’t see it happening. It probably get worse.”

The Felix Project is doing vital work; but to continue to do so it needs more food. The organisation is calling for a Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), a financial mechanism to incentivise farmers to donate surplus, edible food to charities.

But the single biggest thing the government could do to reduce holiday hunger would of course be lift the two-child benefit cap – a policy that limits child-related benefits to the first two children in a family.

Campaigners and charities argue that removing the cap would lift around 250,000 children out of poverty overnight.

The government’s child poverty strategy will be published in the autumn. In the mean time, schools like Henry Fawcett are trying desperately to pick up the slack.

“It comes home to you, we’re doing this, and it’s going to be another week till the next food bank, and you’re thinking, what’s going to happen within that week?” says Marie. “But we can only do our best.”

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