THE UN agency in charge of providing humanitarian aid to children around the world is to help feed hungry kids in the UK for the first time in its 70-year history.
Unicef is launching a domestic emergency response to help children struggling through the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of families struggling to put food on the table has grown since the beginning of the pandemic, with a May YouGov poll finding 2.4 million children are in food insecure households.
Now the agency is stepping in to give money to more than 30 communities across the UK.
Food Poverty Action Aberdeen and Edinburgh Community Food are among the Scottish charities set to receive support from the organisation.
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Unicef UK’s director of programmes, Anna Kettley, said: “We know that the coronavirus pandemic is the most urgent crisis affecting children since the Second World War and it is ending childrens’ lives everywhere, including right here at home.
"We know that before the pandemic 2.4m children across the UK were already growing up in food insecure households and that since the lockdown period and the ongoing crisis, 32% of households have experienced a drop of income.
"Some families are having to make some really difficult decisions right now between heating and eating."
Part of the £700,000 support will include a grant of £25,000 to the London-based School Food Matters charity, where the cash will provide more than 20,000 breakfasts to children through the winter holidays.
The charity’s founder, Stephanie Slater, said it is “significant” that this is the first time Unicef has stepped in to support a UK project.
She explained: “That just shows us that we are all acknowledging there is a real issue here with food insecurity and it is not going to go away anytime soon.
"Covid has absolutely clobbered low-income families and they are really struggling.”
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The boxes will include fresh pineapple, oats, coconut, rice, bread, beans and milk and will be provided through the Christmas and February breaks.
It comes after the Tory Government voted against extending free school meals over England’s school holidays until Easter 2021.
Tory MPs argued it was not the job of schools to “regularly provide food during the school holidays”.
In Scotland, free school meals provision has been extended through the Christmas and Easter holidays, while the SNP have pledged to provide free meals for all primary school pupils if they win at the Holyrood 2021 election.
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