How we're helping tackle holiday hunger this February half-term

We're extending the kids eat free offer at our cafes into the Easter holidays – as well as working closely with our charity partner FareShare to donate 150,000 meals during the half-term holiday to support children who normally have access to free school meals.

Asda donates 150,000 meals for the February half-term holidays

Our cafe promotion, which includes takeaways, means children aged 16 and under can have a free nutritionally balanced hot or cold meal when an adult spends £1. We've already provided 230,000 free meals to children through the scheme.

Working alongside FareShare, we're making the 150,000 meal donation so that vulnerable children can access to nutritionally balanced meals over the holiday period, a time when people can often struggle to provide food for their families.

The donation has been made possible through our Fight Hunger Create Change programme, which has invested in the charity’s infrastructure so that an additional 4,670 charities have access to fresh, quality food across the country.

Jo Warner, Asda’s Community Director, said:“The past year has been extremely challenging for so many families. We know that throughout the school holidays, food banks and charities see an increase in demand for emergency food parcels and services, which is why we’re so pleased to be able to provide meals to families across the country who would otherwise rely on a school meal during term time.”

Asda is donating 150,000 meals for school children this February half term

Lindsay Boswell, FareShare Chief Executive, said: “FareShare has more than doubled the amount of food it distributes over the past year, now providing frontline charities with enough food to create over two million meals each week – with two-thirds of this food being accessed by children and families.

"Asda’s investment in our infrastructure with additional warehouse space, chillers and vans has been crucial in enabling us to respond to the crisis – but we know the hard work is far from over, with vulnerable families struggling even more during half term breaks without the safety net of free school meals. With Asda’s support the FareShare network will be working tirelessly over the February half term to get as much good surplus food to the children and families who need it.”

As part of the Fight Hunger Create Change partnership, which brings together both FareShare and the Trussell Trust, we've been able to support over one million people by providing not only fresh food, but support services to help people in crisis out of the situation they find themselves in.

Through the £25 million donation we've made to our charity partners over the past three years, £5.7 million has also been granted to food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network to provide services such as finance and debt advice.