29 Jul 2021 Good Food for the Holidays: a toolkit to support good food for the Holiday Activity and Food Programmes
Food Active has launched a new toolkit, designed to support delivery providers of the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) to provide healthy, delicious meals and a range of engaging food and nutrition activities over the summer.
The expansion of the HAF programme nationally means thousands of children in receipt of free school meals in England will be able to engage in sessions that include sports, music, arts and other exciting opportunities to learn and develop skills, as well as enjoying delicious and healthy food. This fund will go some way to addressing holiday hunger and supporting some of our most vulnerable children in enriching activities and socialising with other children over the holidays.
The programme is being funded by the Department for Education, who have stated in their guidance providers are required to ensure food provided at HAF meets School Food Standards, provide daily nutrition education sessions to increase children’s awareness and understanding of healthy eating and weekly sessions to engage their parents/carers in good food.
Whilst some of the delivery providers of the programme will have lots of experience in providing food at holiday clubs, summer camps and after-school clubs, some may be less confident with this and/or have little experience of the School Food Standards. The ‘Good Food for the Holidays’ Toolkit is designed specifically for HAF providers, to support them to provide food that meets the School Food Standards, which also containing a wide range of other useful information including:
- The School Food Standards, how to apply these and opportunities to develop the food offer within your provision further
- Exploring fussy eating and strategies to support you to encourage children to try new foods
- Special dietary requirements, including food allergens, special diets and religious customs
- Useful food skills for HAF providers themselves; from reading food labels and menu planning to budgeting.
- A range of meal ideas and recipes; designed for hot food provision and those who may have little/no kitchen facilities.
- Creative ideas for undertaking the nutrition education element of HAF, plus how to engage with parents and carers on healthy eating.
- A range of supporting resources including an audit and check tool.
The toolkit has been developed by a team of Registered Nutritionists (with the AfN) at Food Active and is designed to support providers by increasing their confidence in providing healthy and delicious food at HAF.
Interested?
The online toolkit is a PDF document, composed of several different sections, appendices and integrated navigation to allow providers easy access and navigation around the toolkit.
Are you a HAF provider?
You are able to purchase an individual license to the toolkit for a small fee of £45 per organisation. You can purchase this on the Food Active shop here.
Are you a HAF coordinator?
You can purchase of licenses to share with all your HAF providers rather than purchasing individual licenses. We are offering bulk license purchases a discount depending on the number of licenses purchased, which can be redeemed on the Food Active shop here.
Training and additional support
We are also able to offer virtual training to HAF providers to unpick some of the key concepts within the toolkit; specifically the School Food Standards and what providers need to do and how to meet these standards. If you are interested in finding out more, please email beth.bradshaw@foodactive.org.uk
If you have any questions, please contact beth.bradshaw@foodactive.org.uk
