£900,000 fund to help Calderdale children stay healthy in the holidays

Groups in the borough can apply for a share of the ‘Healthy Holidays Calderdale Programme’ grant from Calderdale Council and the Community Foundation for Calderdale, to help reduce inequalities by tackling child hunger and family poverty.

This builds on the success of previous rounds of Healthy Holidays grants.

Funded by the Government’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme, these have enabled dozens of Calderdale venues to provide enriching activities for thousands of youngsters, many of whom receive free school meals during term time.

The HAF Programme aims to bridge the holiday experience gap by providing free holiday clubs for school-aged children from reception to year 11 who receive benefits-related free school meals.

Councillor Tim Swift, Calderdale Council’s Leader, said: “We’re happy to be working with the Community Foundation for Calderdale once again to help provide quality food and holiday activities to children who receive free school meals. This is an important part of our work to tackle food poverty, which is a real issue for many local families.

“Over 8000 Calderdale pupils are currently eligible for free school meals. In line with the Council’s priority to reduce inequalities, we want to ensure as many young people as possible can take part and benefit from better knowledge of nutrition, greater resilience and character-building, socialising, improved health and wellbeing and the opportunity to reach their potential and live a larger life – key ambitions of the Vision2024 for Calderdale.

“We’re encouraging local organisations to apply for funding to help make a difference in the spring, summer and winter holidays in 2022. The amazing activities they have provided during previous schemes have had a real impact on so many young people and their families. Now they can play a part in Calderdale’s recovery from COVID-19 as more children and families start getting back out and about.”

Grant applications were previously for one school holiday at a time, but now organisations only need to apply once to get support for activities during the Easter, summer and Christmas school holidays in 2022.

Applicants could include childminders, wraparound care providers, activity groups, schools and voluntary and community sector organisations.

The deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday 28 February 2022.

In previous Healthy Holidays schemes, young people have benefited from activities such as team sports, yoga, canoeing, crafts, music and exploring nature. They receive a tasty, nutritious meal at each session and learn about food through fun activities such as cooking and gardening.

During the December 2021 school holidays, children in Calderdale had so much fun doing new activities that they hadn’t had the opportunity to try before, that the scheme caught the attention of the Department for Education and featured in its national HAF Programme video.

Steve Duncan, CEO of the Community Foundation for Calderdale, explained: “We are working on making it easier and more accessible to apply for a grant. Rather than applying for a separate grant for each school holiday, organisations only need to apply once, making it a more efficient use of time.”

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