The Chief Executive of the Children's Rights Alliance has called for a programme to assist families coping with "holiday hunger" following the success of the Government's hot school meals programme.
Tanya Ward said the impact of hunger on children "affects their growth and development and contributes to obesity levels because families will rely on cheap processed food to try and feed their families, to get the budget to go that bit further".
She said hunger makes younger children "feel unloved" and for older children the hunger "does affect their mental health".
She said that such a scheme was not just needed for summer but all holiday periods.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Ms Ward said there was no summer holiday for families in need of support just an enormous amount of stress.
She suggested the Government start with a pilot scheme similar to that of the hot school meals programme.
"The schools who have a lot of experience in this area, who have been part of the evaluation said they could actually step in those Christmas periods and mid-term breaks," she said.
But Ms Ward said other providers needed to be looked at for the summer months.
She said that if a fund was started, organisations could apply locally for help.
"They know what the problem is on the ground," she said, "they know the families that can’t actually put a weekly roast on the table".
This would allow them to put together a programme that supports people on the ground, she added.
"Let’s just start with a €1 million investment," she said.
Ambitious goal
National Clinical Lead for Obesity for the HSE Professor Donal O'Shea has said a programme to tackle "holiday hunger" would be good in principle, but challenging on a practical level.
Speaking on Today with Claire Byrne, Professor O’Shea said that at present the hot school meals programme has healthy options alongside options for processed foods.
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He said this programme needs a structure in place to monitor what foods children are being offered, as well as portion sizes based on age and class group, adding that hot school meals should not include an unhealthy offering.
However, the professor acknowledged that the programme is not an initiative to tackle obesity.
Professor O'Shea said that it would be impossible to ask the school system to roll out such a scheme without putting in a specific person to deal with nutrition knowledge and deal with suppliers.
He said that this would be a full-time job and a big ask, but making the scheme more widespread would be a good ambitious goal.
The scheme should be targeted at disadvantaged areas, children living in poverty and should not be expanded beyond such parameters until all of the teething problems are resolved, he said.
