Hertfordshire County Council is teaming up with the Family Food Trust, a government backed charity, to help them to deliver food vouchers to children and young people in receipt of free school meals during the winter school holidays. This follows recent government announcements of the COVID-19 Winter Grant Scheme, part of this funding will be allocated to providing food vouchers to entitled families this Christmas holiday and in February 2021 half-term.

 

A total of £30 per entitled child will be provided for the Christmas holidays (10 days) and £15 per child for the February 2021 half-term (5 days). Families will receive support for each of these holidays separately, before the end of each term. 

 

This support is not available for children entitled to Universal Infant Free School Meals, but entitled children in Reception, Year 1 and 2 will receive a voucher.

 

The electronic vouchers for food and groceries can be used in four major supermarkets (Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s) and will be sent to families directly by email or if necessary, they can be printed, and we will distribute them.

 

Your school, Hertfordshire County Council and the Family Food Trust will need to access and share personal data of pupils and students who are entitled to free school meals to enable us to provide food vouchers directly to eligible families. This data will include the name and contact details of each pupil/student and parent/carer and the name of the college they attend. All information shared will be used solely for the purpose of distributing food vouchers; no personal information will be shared with any other partner or third party, and data will only be retained for the length of time of the food voucher support offer. Data will be stored and transferred securely from your school to Hertfordshire County Council and then to the Family Food Trust.

 

If you do not wish your child(ren) to be included in this voucher scheme or if you have any concerns please contact Hertfordshire County Council at: educationteam@hertfordshire.gov.uk. For further information about Hertfordshire County Council’s Privacy Policy please click here.

 

Families who do not qualify for free school meals but are worried about their finances or having enough food this winter can contact HertsHelp, email info@hertshelp.net, call 0300 123 4044 or visit www.hertshelp.net