£100,000 for meals at summer playschemes in Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent

A SCHEME making sure youngsters don't go hungry during the school holidays will be run in two areas of Gwent.

Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent are among 13 local authority areas of Wales where the £100,000 pilot making sure playschemes, holiday clubs and other schemes are able to provide food.

The Welsh Government scheme, which will be run throughout the school holidays, is intended to make sure youngsters who would otherwise get free school meals during term time and others from low-income families do not go hungry.

Julie Morgan, the Welsh Government's deputy minister for health and social care, said: “We recognise that the long summer school holidays place an additional burden on low income families, especially those who usually benefit from free school meals. Through this pilot we will build on existing provision so that even more families can avoid ‘holiday hunger’ during the summer break - redressing the imbalance of food availability, health inequality and social isolation which disproportionately affects children living in poverty.”