Emergency free meals delivered through £70m Food Fund

More community food projects will receive funding to provide emergency free meals to those most in need during the coronavirus pandemic.Around £700,000 has been allocated from the £70 million Scottish Food Fund to 19 projects, including a £350,000 grant to the Wheatley Group to provide 8,500 emergency food deliveries to people most in need in 17 local authority areas as part of its own EatWell service over the next three months.A further 18 schemes will share £400,000 to provide emergency food through a range of projects working with minority ethnic households, family support groups or mental health teams.The Food Fund comprises £30m for food deliveries for the ‘shielded’ groups at highest clinical risk, and a further £30m to local authorities for free school meals and food support for older people, those with long-term health conditions and pregnant women.The remaining £10m is for critical third sector and community response organisations, which includes funding so far of £500,000 each for Social Bite, FareShare and Cash for Kids.Around 140,000 children and young people across Scotland are also being supported with the provision of a free school meal.Local authorities are providing the majority of meals through vouchers, direct payments or home deliveries, according to the latest monitoring data.Meals are also provided at some education early years hubs, around 400 of which are open across Scotland to ensure continuity of education and pastoral care for vulnerable young people including those with additional support needs, as well as children of key workers.New guidance to support continuity of learning at the start of term 4, which for the vast majority of children and young people will be experienced at home, will be published in the coming days as Easter school break ends. The Parent Club Scotland website also continues to be updated with a range of advice and support through the COVID-19 outbreak.The Scottish Government is working with a range of partners to support children and families and mitigate the impact of the outbreak and the necessary social distancing measures on education and other vital services to support health and wellbeing.Funding has been provided for a range of local and national projects, including through the £350m communities support package announced last month to help those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes extra support for care-experienced young people, providing updated advice and IT support for families, and responding to a rising demand for counselling from children and young people.# funding opportunity# COVID-19