21 May 2025 Blog: Reflecting on four years of the Holiday Activities and Food programme
When schools close for the holidays, many children lose access to the structure, support, and nourishment they rely on during term time. Holidays are a particularly hard time for households experiencing food insecurity; an estimated 3 million children are at risk of hunger in the school holidays[i]. The nutritional safety net that Free School Meals offers to low-income households does not stretch to cover the holidays. These same children may also not have the opportunity to attend expensive holiday clubs with their friends or enjoy holidays with their families[ii].
Recognising this gap in provision, the nationwide roll out of the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) was launched in England just over four years ago in July 2021 to ensure that vulnerable children and young people have access to enriching activities and nutritious meals during the school holidays.
HAF initially began with a number of pilot schemes in 2018, supporting a small number of local authorities to test various models of holiday provision for children eligible for free school meals. The success of these pilots highlighted the programme’s potential to address food insecurity during the holidays.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the concern around rising levels of food insecurity reached new heights[iii]. This led to a national campaign to introduce more support for low-income families, including expanding HAF beyond the 17 areas currently being funded and across all three school holidays, spearheaded by national organisations such as the Food Foundation and footballer Marcus Rashford MBE[iv]. In addition, Part 1 of Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy called on the government to extend HAF to all areas in England, so that summer holiday support is available to all children in receipt of free school meals[v].
The following year, the government announced a significant expansion of the HAF Programme, investing over £200 million to roll it out across all 152 upper tier local authorities in England. These clubs offer a safe, fun, and educational environment during key school holiday period – typically during the Easter, summer, and Christmas holidays for a set number of days.
Each participating child receives:
- At least one healthy meal a day, which must meet the school food standards and ideally served as a hot meal
- Opportunities to engage in enriching activities such as sports, music, arts and crafts, and outdoor adventures
- Food and nutrition activities for both children and their families
What impact has the programme had?
The Department of Education commissioned an evaluation of the 2021 HAF programme, which reported that meals served had a positive impact on food insecurity[vi]. Children were more active, confident, and socially active than those that did not attend. They engaged in new activities and stated they had eaten healthier[vii]. The benefits of attending the holiday clubs were felt both by children and their wider family; parent/carers had better access to local services and found it easier to maintain work.
Since its nationwide launch in 2021, Food Active’s team of registered nutritionists have been working with hundreds of providers across the country to upskill them around the school food standards through the Good Food for the Holidays programme, to ensure they are offering healthy, balanced and delicious meals to children and young people at HAF. Through our training offer we have heard first hand just how important the programme is, and some of the amazing work providers are doing to increase access to healthier food for the children and families they work with. You can read three fantastic case studies here from Edsential, Chorley Sports School Sponsorship and Sportscool Preston and Fylde.
What does the future hold for HAF?
Since taking office last July, the Labour government announced the funding for HAF would be extended for another 12 months until April 2026; however, it remains to be seen what ministers have in store for the programme after then.
Four years since it was launched, HAF has become a key aspect of support that families can rely on during the holidays, yet the cost-of-living crisis has continued to put pressure on household budgets, with levels of food insecurity continuing to rise. The need for the HAF programme is as strong as it has ever been, therefore we strongly urge the government to commit to long term funding as soon as possible to provide local authorities, the fantastic third sector organisations who deliver the programme and families in need with the reassurance that this important programme will continue. Food Active are also calling for the funding to be extended to cover half term holidays too, to ensure there are no gaps across the year where children may have to go without a meal.
HAF is more than just a hot meal – it’s a vital safety net and an opportunity for children to learn, grow, and flourish outside of the classroom. As the programme reaches its fifth year of delivery, it holds the promise of supporting the government’s mission to create the healthiest generation of children and breaking down the barriers for children and young people. All that is needed is the long term commitment from Number 10.
References
[i] All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger. (2017). Hungry Holidays. [online] Available at: https://feedingbritain.files.wordpress. com/2015/02/hungry-holidays.pdf.
[ii] Ibid and The Trussell Trust, 2018. Families, Hunger and the Holidays. [online] Available at: https://www.trusselltrust.org/ wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/08/Families-hunger-and-theholidays-policy-brief.pdf
[iii] Food Foundation (2021) The impact of covid-19 on household food insecurity [online] Available at: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/crisis-within-crisis-impact-covid-19-household-food-security
[iv] https://foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/endchildfoodpoverty-campaign
[v] https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NFS-Part-One-SP-CP.pdf
[vi] https://fixourfood.org/evaluation-of-the-holiday-activities-and-food-programme/
[vii] https://phirst.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/PHIRST-Southwark-Slide-deck-December-2023.pdf
