City Catering provides meals to 1,800 families during the Christmas school holidays.
As part of their continual work to support families at risk of food poverty during the school holidays, local charity, City Catering will be providing grocery boxes to 1,800 families from 55 different Southampton schools for the December school holidays.
"The families are very appreciative for any additional food parcels that they receive and we know it is making a bit difference to their lives"
The grocery boxes are recipe-led and provide families with the ingredients and instructions for cooking a range of healthy, low-cost meals and snacks to support them over the school holidays. Approximately, 28,880 meals will be able to be cooked as a result! The boxes include the ingredients for meals such as a family favourite Butternut Squash Mac'n'Cheese, or Veggie Potato Cakes as well as some healthy breakfast options such as Banana Porridge, and Pancakes with Berry Compote & Yoghurt.
"This project started in lockdown, and has grown thanks to recent funding - we were able to only support approximately 50 families in Summer, and funding has enabled us to grown this to 1,800 this Christmas - we are simply delighted! The positive feedback from schools and families has been heart-warming, and we know how needed this support is, now more than ever" says Jessica Clasby-Monk who has coordinated the project for City Catering.
The charity has benefited from three major sources of funding; HM Government's Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, Barclays 100x100 Fund and from Southampton City Council in response to the Governments Covid Winter Fund. The funding enables City Catering to continue the project during February & Easter half terms. They are now looking to source funding to ensure support remains for May half term onwards - anyone looking to help can get in touch with the charity and donate to their Lunch Crowd fund.
Working with their local partners, Harvest Fine Food, families will start to receive their boxes in the last week of term - the largest operation of this kind in the charities history! However, families not receiving boxes can still take part. City Catering has made available all the recipes on the website, together with cook-along videos and other resources to support and empower healthy, low-cost family cooking, as well as run a dedicated Facebook group to share the resources. People can just search 'Cooking at Home with City Catering' to find it and ask to join.
Laura Suanez-Aisa, Menu Development Assistant who has written and devised the recipes for the families to enjoy, said: "We know that not everyone has access to all the same equipment at home, or have the confidence to cook from scratch. Its so important to us to help boost skills and confidence, so that families feel able to explore new recipes, try new ingredients and hopefully get their children excited about cooking too! We have made the recipes easily adaptable to suit different needs and likes, and hopefully they serve as a base for people to explore and make their own creations with!"
One family who took part in the scheme over Summer, commented: "The ingredients provided were everyday staples, but I wouldn't have had an idea of how to use them to create a meal, the food boxes and recipe cards were fantastic, very clear and easy to make, also healthy. All the family enjoyed."