Parents are struggling to feed their children during the school summer holidays, with charities and local food banks reporting rising demand for emergency food parcels, according to a BBC News report published on Tuesday.

The story lands in the middle of a policy gap that campaigners say will widen next month. From September, free school meals in England are being extended to every child in a household receiving Universal Credit — a change the Resolution Foundation estimates will lift 80,000 children out of poverty by 2029-30. But eligibility for the Holiday Activities and Food programme, which provides meals and childcare during school breaks, is not moving with it.

The Department for Education has confirmed HAF will keep the existing threshold, restricting places to children in households earning £7,400 a year or less. In a written answer on 11 June, ministers said the scheme was "specifically targeted at" those families, "focusing on families facing the greatest levels of disadvantage". More than £600m has been allocated across three financial years from 2026/27, with over 500,000 children benefiting in the past year.

Councils have begun warning parents of the mismatch. Sutton's guidance states that "the expansion of Free School Meals does not extend HAF eligibility", while Trafford advises that "some children receiving free school meals may not be eligible for HAF". Hampshire says all discretionary places will be reviewed each holiday period from September.

Feeding Britain, the charity that campaigned for HAF's creation, is petitioning ministers to restore the link, arguing that around 500,000 newly eligible children will get a term-time lunch but no summer provision. The figure is campaign estimate rather than official data. The charity's framing is blunt:

A child judged to need a free lunch on a Tuesday in term time is being judged not to need one six weeks later in August.

Running alongside is a second change with immediate effect. On 1 April, the £1bn Crisis and Resilience Fund replaced the Household Support Fund in England, folding in Discretionary Housing Payments. Several authorities say the new rules have ended blanket holiday food vouchers. Buckinghamshire Council told residents the fund "does not allow us to make payments to all households in receipt of free school meals every school holiday", adding: "This is not a policy choice, it is something which we are no longer permitted to do." Kent County Council has scrapped £10-a-week supermarket vouchers per eligible child. Manchester, by contrast, is paying £50 per child this summer, reaching around 47,000 children.

The effect is visible locally. Canterbury Food Bank distributed 30% more parcels in July, enough for 4,887 meals for young people across Canterbury, Herne Bay and Whitstable. "There's only one reality, and that's that children aren't being fed," said David Holt, its chair of trustees, adding that the response to funding pressure "shouldn't be to take food from the mouths of children".

Food Bank Aid, which supplies more than 30 London food banks reaching over 20,000 people a month, said 86% of its partners saw demand rise last year. "When the summer holidays begin, that support disappears overnight, but the need doesn't," said chief executive Alyson.

The Food Foundation's July tracking put 12.2% of UK households — 6.5 million adults and 2.2 million children — in food insecurity, rising to 35.9% of Universal Credit households. Children's Society research in March found 65% of parents worried about holiday food costs, with one in 10 who struggled turning to a food bank. "Summer holidays should be a time for fun, but for too many families it is a nightmare," said chief executive Mark Russell.

The pressure is not straightforwardly driven by prices, which are cooling. British Retail Consortium food inflation fell to 2.2% in July, a sixth consecutive monthly decline, though ONS figures show food costs remain 30.1% higher than in April 2022. Trussell distributed 2.6 million parcels in 2025, including 912,000 for children — a total that has fallen in each of the past two years.

Downing Street says Andy Burnham, who became Prime Minister last month, will spend much of August touring the country in "listening mode" on the cost of living. The Department for Education has not yet said whether HAF eligibility will change before the Christmas holidays.