The Government has recently voted to oppose Marcus Rashford’s campaign to extend the free school meals scheme into the holidays, which includes the upcoming October half term.
We believe that no child should go hungry, especially during a global pandemic. As we are a part of the High Wycombe community we understand that we must all do what we can to help those in need, and with only days until half-term starts, we have decided to open up our on-site café, The Lounge, from 12-2pm to provide school aged children in need with a free hot meal throughout the whole week.
With the spike in demand for food banks throughout the pandemic and many families in a worse position now than they were during the summer, we not only want to ensure that we can do our part to provide access to free meals throughout the half term but that we can do so in a COVID-secure way and help to keep people safe. The Lounge has been, and will continue to operate in a COVID-secure manner, with staff wearing masks, the NHS Track and Trace scan upon arrival and hand sanitiser stations placed throughout, the safety of those joining us on campus will always be a priority. Unfortunately, due to the lack of space on campus, we are unable to offer parking to visitors.
Our CEO, Tristan Tipping had this to say, "It is desperately sad that in modern society, here in the UK, any child should be going hungry. We were shocked when the Government didn’t support the latest proposals, and if, throughout this half term, anyone was going to go without food the Union felt very strongly that we should do something to help. We are extremely grateful that the Clare Foundation are supporting our Wellbeing Month and this initiative falls perfectly into that, the response from students and staff after a call for volunteers has been amazing."
If you wish to volunteer your time to help out during the half term please email jade.collis@bucks.ac.uk. We will also have donation points available for anyone who wishes to donate food or personal hygiene products, which will then be used towards food bank parcels for families in need and, if you can't make it in to donate, we have set up a Just Giving page where all donations will be utilised in similar schemes or donated to food banks.