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Sainsbury's Nourish the Nation programme, in partnership with Comic Relief, aims to tackle food poverty by helping people access the balanced, nutritional, and sustainable food they need, right now and in the future.
The Department for Education currently provides support to children (reception to year 11) who receive benefits-related free school meals through their Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme. The programme is delivered through local councils to children who receive free school meals (FSM) if their parents receive one of the qualifying benefits. There is evidence that some children who need support are missing out, and the scheme does not cover the whole summer – often 4 weeks of a 6-week holiday. This programme aims to improve/increase access for those children.
The aim of the Fund is to provide school children (up to Year 11) with improved access to summer holiday activity and food schemes. The programme will support organisations who already provide food and holiday activities to increase access and reach. It will also support organisations that currently do not provide such services but feel well-placed to deliver a summer food and activity scheme.
What can the fund support?
Sainsbury’s and Comic Relief can see the limitations of the current scheme and are keen to pilot a programme with the aim of:
- Providing food to children experiencing food poverty which will, in turn, increase their health and well-being.
- Developing a programme that addresses gaps in the current provision and reviewing the impact.
- Raising awareness of food poverty amongst children through storytelling and publicity to raise further funds.
- Showcasing how food poverty for children during the summer could be addressed differently to potentially develop a larger scale programme in the future.
Comic Relief has also identified a specific gap in supporting children and young people with a disability with food and activities during the summer and this fund is interested in supporting organisations that can support increased and/or improved access to schemes for children and young people with a disability.
Programme priorities
The programme will first prioritise applications from organisations looking to:
- Increase/improve access to holiday food and activity schemes for children with disabilities.
- Increase/improve access to holiday food and activity schemes for children experiencing food poverty.
- Deliver across the full six-weeks of summer school holidays.
Income threshold:
Organisations with an income of under £500,000 in the last financial year.
If we have a high volume of applications, we will further prioritise organisations with an income of less than £300,000 or those who operate in areas with high levels of deprivation.
Location:
Applications to The London Community Foundation are welcome from organisations based in any London borough delivering projects and services to children and young people in London. Community foundations in Manchester, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are delivering similar programmes in their regions.
Examples of projects that might be funded include:
- Expansion of an existing summer holiday food and activity programme, enabling more children to attend.
- A new food and activity scheme where an organisation is well placed to engage children and have the programme up and running in time for the start of the 2024 summer holidays.
- New ways to support children with disabilities to attend a holiday food and activity programme.
Specific demographics:
Children and young people aged between 4 and 16
Grant size and duration:
- Organisations can apply for grants of up to £10,000. 10% of this can be allocated towards core organisational costs such as, but not limited to, rent, bills and staff costs.
- You can begin allocating funding to your project from 01 July for any preparation work required for delivery.
- Projects must begin delivery in line with the start of the 2024 school summer holidays for your borough and be completed by 13th September 2024 (this allows some time for wrapping up delivery).
Deadline:
12pm on Tuesday 14 May 2024.
Source of funding:
The fund is provided by Sainsbury's in partnership with Comic Relief.
Contact details:
If you have any questions or would like to discuss any element of the fund or your application, please contact us on 020 7582 5117 or at applications@londoncf.org.uk.