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Food and essentials


Help with food costs

Community fridges and larders

Community fridges and larders are publicly accessible fridges, freezers or ambient spaces that offer food for free to everyone in a local area – no referral is required. They make use of surplus food that would have otherwise gone to waste – mostly from businesses but also from households.

Find out more about community fridges and larders, including a list of where to find these on our Recycle Devon website. The website also has great tips on reducing food waste and about apps such as Olio and Too Good To Go.

Community fridges and larders are also included on the community groups map on the Recycle Devon website.

Food banks

Food banks provide stocks of food, typically basic provisions and non-perishable items, free of charge to people in need. Find your nearest food bank on the Pinpoint directory.

Free school meals

All children in reception, year 1 and year 2 at state schools in England automatically get free school meals. However, if eligible, parents and guardians should apply for free school meals when they enrol or once their child is in school, as this can help their child’s school attract additional funding to support their child’s learning. You can apply at any stage.

From year 3 onwards, you may continue to qualify for free school meals for your child. You can check eligibility and apply on our free school meals page. The free school meals scheme is a national programme and is not part of the Household Support Fund.

Holiday food vouchers

Families of children that are eligible and who receive benefits-related free school meals will receive a voucher to the value of £15 per child per week for six weeks of the school holidays for Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Aldi, Iceland, M&S Food or Waitrose to help pay for groceries over the break.

Children in reception, year 1 and year 2 receive free school meals as standard, but to qualify for holiday food vouchers you must be eligible and you must apply for free school meals, as described above. Nearly 20,000 children in Devon were eligible for free school meal vouchers during the last summer holidays.

The vouchers will automatically be distributed to eligible households prior to the Easter and the May half-term (three weeks), the summer holiday (six weeks), the October half-term (one week), and the Christmas and February half-term breaks (three weeks).

Find out more and claim your vouchers.

Holiday Activities and Food programme

The Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme aims to support children to eat more healthily and be more active over the school holidays.

Healthy Start – get help to buy food and milk

If you’re more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, you may be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk. Find out more about Healthy Start and how to apply if you are eligible

 


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