Uproar as Council Scraps Food Vouchers for Kids
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN
Reform UK-led East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has scrapped the automatic allocation of supermarket food vouchers for struggling families over the summer holidays. The decision has provoked outrage from parents and drawn sharp criticism from local Labour MP Helena Dollimore, who described the decision as “disgraceful” and demanded it be “urgently reversed”.
The county council decided to stop issuing food vouchers to eligible families after the central government funding programme, the Household Support Fund (HSF) scheme, officially closed on 31 March. The scheme was replaced on 1 April with a new Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), with additional Government funding of over £1 billion a year, compared with £742 million provided under the HSF.
ESCC continued providing holiday vouchers over Easter and May half-term, but Council Leader Cllr Andy Woolley confirmed they will not be extended to the summer break.
Under the new arrangements, councils are no longer mandated to automatically distribute vouchers. Instead, they have local discretion over how to allocate support. Rather than issuing vouchers, the County Council Leader believes ESCC can “provide better, more targeted support, with a stronger emphasis on tackling the causes of hardship, building resilience, and supporting families facing the greatest challenges over the longer term.”
Cllr Woolley insisted “the change would not mean support has disappeared” and stressed “help remains available for families in crisis, alongside a range of other support programmes.” Acknowledging why people may be concerned about the end of food vouchers, “particularly in communities where many families are already struggling,” he added: “No one wants to see a child go hungry during the school holidays.”
The Council Leader conceded no “single scheme can meet every family’s needs” and defended the council’s shift towards supporting those “families facing the most significant difficulties”. He emphasised that “families eligible for free school meals can access free activities and meals through the Holiday Food and Fun sessions running across East Sussex during the summer holidays.” These are also paid for by the government.
The Labour MP for Hastings, Rye and the villages, Helena Dollimore, called on Reform UK “to be honest with the public about their political decision to take away school holiday meal vouchers from children who need them the most.”
The MP also accused ESCC of failing to give families adequate notice of their plans, noting that many parents only discovered in the final week of the summer term that they would not receive the vouchers over the holidays, despite record government funding of £7.3m to ESCC back in April to help transition to the new scheme. She described the late communication as “totally unacceptable” and warned “the decision puts hundreds of children across East Sussex at risk.”
In response to the county council’s decision not to issue summer holiday food vouchers, Barry Ashley, from the Grumpy Cook in Hastings, has launched his own campaign to fight food poverty without stigma. The Help Feed a Child This Summer initiative aims to provide free lunches to those who need them most to ensure that no child goes hungry during the school holidays.
The initiative has quickly galvanised local support with nearby cafes and grocers offering surplus ingredients, and an online crowdfunder has raised more than £3,000 within its first week. Community centres and church halls across Hastings have also offered their spaces as collection points, turning the campaign into a town-wide effort that many residents see as a powerful expression of local solidarity.
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