Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme to help vulnerable families over Christmas holidays

For the second year running Hampshire County Council, which represents people living outside of Portsmouth or Southampton, is funding more than 100 fun and engaging schemes for eligible children over the Christmas school holidays, as part of its Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme. Using the funding provided by the Department for Education, the council - with the support of local providers – has secured a programme of activities and healthy meals during the school holidays for children who receive income-based free school meals during term time.

Councillor Roz Chadd, in charge of children’s services for the county, said: ‘After a tough year of rising costs, many families are already extremely stretched financially. The winter period – and in particular the festive season – are only likely to add further strain to those challenges, especially for Hampshire’s most vulnerable families. I hope that the programme will go some way to easing those pressures and I would encourage as many eligible families as possible to sign up to their local schemes.

The local authority has awarded more than £600,000 to 49 providers. Schools, childcare providers, community groups, and sports activity providers are among those delivering 127 schemes across the country this Christmas. It follows a successful summer programme, which saw almost £1.9m awarded to HAF providers and more than 11,600 individual children accessing schemes across the county.

Parents and carers wishing to find out what is on offer in their area should search the Family Information and Services Hub at fish.hants.gov.uk.