Plymouth charities join forces with UNICEF to feed local families over Christmas and beyond
Around 120 families will benefit from this partnership, which has just received over £24,000 in funding
Last updated 17th Dec 2020
UNICEF has funded more than £24,000 into a Plymouth partnership aiming to feed local families at risk of food insecurity.
The Plymouth's Families Right 2 Healthy Food project will see Food Plymouth working with Transforming Plymouth Together, Provide Devon and Food is Fun CIC to provide food to around 120 families at key points including Christmas and the February 2021 half-term.
It is going to focus on improving the quality of emergency food parcels, and give the people they are helping ongoing cookery training and educational and relational support.
The Plymouth project is part of Unicef's national Food Power for Generation Covid initiative with Sustain, the sustainable food and farming network.
"This is a really exciting new funded project for the city, highlighting our collective impact around food.
"We will run the four month 'Families Right 2 Healthy Food' project to enhance food access for around 120 Plymouth families in response to ongoing need during the Covid pandemic.
"This is an exciting collaborative project to improve the nutritional quality of emergency food parcels delivered at two specific time points: December 2020 and the February 2021 half term.
"It will include ongoing educational, cooking and relational support delivered alongside."
Dr Clare Pettinger - Food Plymouth
Unicef says the coronavirus pandemic is the most urgent crisis affecting children since the Second World War, upending children's lives around the world and in the UK.
Even before the pandemic struck, an estimated 2.4 million UK children were already growing up in food insecure households.
Since March 2020, families have faced hardship and struggled to make ends meet and access food, as the economy suffers and jobs have been lost.
This has meant that across the UK, there has been an increased demand placed on community support services like Food Plymouth and its partners.