Holiday Food and Activities Programme in Brighton and Hove

Would you like to be part of an ambitious project to ensure that children and young people in Brighton & Hove have the best school holidays ever?

The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme is a new national government initiative from the Department for Education which will fund local authorities to offer enriching activities and free healthy meals to children in the city aged four to 16 who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals (FSM). DfE guidance can be found via the link below

This is an exciting new programme for the city's most disadvantaged children, young people and their families. The council is seeking to work in partnership with activity and food providers to make the holidays healthy and fun for children and young people. The HAF programme will run for one week at Easter, four weeks in the summer and for one week at Christmas 2021. The attached application form is for Easter only.

Because of the short timescale, limited budget, and the difficulty planning programmes as a result of Covid-19, the Easter 2021 HAF programme in Brighton & Hove is being run as a pilot. The council is not anticipating being able to offer the HAF programme to all eligible children in the city at Easter. We are aiming to reach as many children and young people as possible, also ensuring that there is sufficient provision across the city for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

HAF provision should run for four hours a day, for four days, Monday to Friday over the Easter 2021 school holidays which run from 6 to16 April 2021.

Covid-19 restrictions may be in place at Easter. The council is interested in proposals from those who can offer • direct activities for children (and families, where appropriate) alongside a meal[1] in a school or community setting • if this is not possible as a result of Covid-19 restrictions in operation at the time, to be able to adjust their offer to provide on-line or home-based activities for children and families together with food parcels[2]. This could include packed lunches or carefully sourced food that families can cook alongside an accompanying recipe and support to prepare the meal.

The council is not seeking applications from providers who only wish to offer food and not the activities element of the HAF programme. However if your organisation could work in partnership with an activities provider to offer hot or cold food or food parcels please email us with your details.

The deadline for applications is 10 am Monday 8 March 2021

We are holding online information sessions for providers:

• Weds 24th February 2021 (eve) 6.30pm-7.15pm • Thurs 25th February 2021 (day) 10am-10.45am

If you would like to attend either session please email [email protected] so that she can send you an invitation.

If you are interested but cannot attend a session or have any other questions please email: [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.