Holiday Activities and Food annual report

The Department of Education provided funding of £822,840 for 2023 in Gateshead to fund Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) over the Easter, Summer and Christmas School Holidays for benefits-related Free School Meal (FSM) recipients and vulnerable children.

Our holiday clubs all include:

• healthy meals 
• enriching activities (provide fun activities with opportunities to develop skills and knowledge)
• physical activities (which meet the physical activity guidelines)
• nutritional education (awareness of healthy eating and how to source, prepare and cook nutritious and low-cost food
• signposting and referrals to other services and support

In total there are 7,971 children who are eligible for school meals, living in 3,407 households across the borough. The programme also aims to help additional families who are struggling to make ends meet but do not access this benefit.

A HAF (Holiday Activities and Food Programme) Steering group meets bi-monthly to plan and co-ordinate the Brighten the Day programme. 

Representatives on the steering group include officers from Public Health, Children's Services, Poverty Team, Localities Team, Leisure Team, Gateshead Youth Council, Libraries Team, Communications Team and the Digital Team. 

We continue to meet with and offer the Gateshead HAF programme to as many schools as we can. During 2023 we have increased the number of schools we engage with particularly with our secondary and academy colleagues.

We have developed strong partnerships with our new Family Hub network. We see this area key to the sustainability and increasing the take up of families in receipt of benefit related FSM in Gateshead.