A huge thank you to everyone so far. We just hit the '25,000 meals donated' mark and continue to raise funds for this important cause at this difficult time for so many families.

There are 1.3 million children registered for free school meals in the UK who rely on these daily nutritional meals supplied by their schools. Whilst this provision supports many children UNICEF reported in 2017 that one in three children in the UK are in multi-dimensional poverty, with one in five children suffering from food insecurity.

Whilst these statistics show that there are so many vulnerable children in need in the UK, the recent school closures and lock down procedures for Covid-19 have meant that these free school meals have not been as accessible. The Food Foundation estimates that 200,000 UK children are skipping meals due to families not being able to access food and that an estimated 325,000 of the 1.3 million children registered for free school meals have had no support since school closures were announced.

Around 4 million UK children now live in families that cannot afford to follow the government guidelines for a healthy diet.

The first public report of this data is due to be released in March 2021, but it is obvious that school closures have had a huge impact on people's ability to get adequate food with an April 2020 report finding that as many as 1.5 million people had recently gone a whole day without eating.

As we approach the school holidays, food insecurities will increase and the risk of children going hungry is more likely than ever.

Whilst there are many reasons schools attribute to the perceived increase in child hunger and poverty, the recent pandemic has certainly made the situation worse.

Schools in the UK regularly work together in partnership with other schools, charities, Universities and companies in a bid to enhance the lives of children and we wanted to create a central fundraiser for everyone to contribute to this important cause.

We have teamed up with various charities (www.trusselltrust.org and www.magicbreakfast.com) who provide daily meal packages for children and would like to roll our shared initiative out across the UK. If we work together on one fundraiser the impact will be greatly enhanced.

If we all work together on one focused fundraising initiative, pooling our resources and expertise, we can support these children in their time of need.

Schools can encourage their students to partake in fundraising activities such as read-a-thons or sponsored walks, using this as a learning exercise, teaching valuable service learning and experiential skills and knowledge. They can post their activities on the social media pages for all to see, inspiring others across our schools to do something similar and share ideas.

Companies can support the initiative by offering their expertise and resources to these schools to accomplish something special or do their own fundraising with their staff too .

Please join us in making this bold statement of support for those children in need. Every school or company that donates to this cause will have their school/company logo posted on the fundraising page. Upload photographs and stories of what you have done to the Big Food Fundraiser Facebook page.

All funds raised will go towards funding meals packages for vulnerable children across the UK.

Companion Facebook page: - www.bigfoodfundraiser.com

#BigFoodFundraiser #Schoolstogether