How did Southampton’s holiday provision change during 2020?
Covid-19 has impacted the way that the Holiday Provision Steering Group were able to run holiday provision this year which has meant we’ve had to get creative. When lockdown hit, food became an incredibly scarce resource for many, with Government statistics showing that 7.7 million UK adults missed or skipped meals in the first months of lockdown and 3.7M used food banks, it is without a doubt that we had to act in order to reduce the impact on our community.
We asked member organisations to complete a survey in order to get a holistic view of how holiday provision has changed in Southampton, providing a summary of the free food and activity holiday provision available to families across Southampton during the summer holiday of 2020, capturing information from the following organisations; Southampton City Mission, Foundry Lane Primary School, Radian's Good Grub Club, Connect 4 Summer, Make Lunch Southampton East (Sholing), Swaythling Parish Holiday Lunch Club, Regent's Park Community College, Homegroup Southampton Flexible Housing Related Support Service, SO18 Big Local, Communicare in Southampton, Saints Foundation & City Catering Southampton.
So how exactly did Southampton respond to the food crisis?
This year there was more virtual provision offered, instead of face to face, which doesn’t come as a surprise. We also saw organisations offer free cold meals for the first time, and more grocery provision. For example, at City Catering, we launched our free cooking at home programme which meant that families could still access resources that they needed in order to cook healthy balanced meals. We also saw organisations providing free takeaway meals, free groceries, free activities, free sport, professional guidance, referrals to other organisations, access to vouchers, summer holiday clubs and free clothing.
We also saw more organisations offering free holiday provision than in previous years, with support being offered across all the different wards of Southampton. We saw 90% of organisations adapting their offering due to Covid-19, with 40% reducing their capacity. 3 organisations found their services oversubscribed, where this happened they offered online support where possible to ensure that families were getting the support that they needed.
On average, services supported 12 more families each and 210 more families in total, compared to previous years. Collectively we were able to provide 161 more days of holiday provision throughout the summer, compared to previous years.
Thank you to all the Southampton organisations that worked so hard to achieve these amazing results, it really shows that in a time of crisis, we can come together to help one another.
If you’d like to find out more about the Holiday Provision Steering Group, (which has been funded through a VIVID grant administered by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation) you can do so here.
“Our lunch club members need us even if they can’t attend!”
