{"id":275875,"date":"2025-04-07T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T06:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/07\/herefordshire-council-makes-free-school-meal-pledge-for-holidays\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T06:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T06:00:15","slug":"herefordshire-council-makes-free-school-meal-pledge-for-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/07\/herefordshire-council-makes-free-school-meal-pledge-for-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Herefordshire Council makes free school meal pledge for holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/3542\/live\/b44cc450-116e-11f0-b234-07dc7691c360.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Herefordshire Council makes free school meal pledge for holidays\" title=\"Herefordshire Council makes free school meal pledge for holidays\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">A council has committed to continuing to provide free school meals for children over the Easter holidays.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Primary and secondary school pupils in Herefordshire who are entitled to benefits-related free school meals will be given vouchers to cover the cost of lunch during the break from school.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Carole Gandy, from Herefordshire Council, said: &#8220;The rise in the cost of living is proving to be very difficult for many people.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">&#8220;This additional support is really important for families with children that may be struggling financially.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">The vouchers, worth up to \u00a330, are funded through the council&#8217;s <!-- --><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.herefordshire.gov.uk\/community-1\/cost-living\/2\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 beIoQm\" rel=\"noopener\">Household Support Fund<!-- --><\/a>, which comes from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The support fund aims to help anyone who is vulnerable or cannot pay for essentials.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">The vouchers will be provided directly through schools, while children who are not at school and entitled to the early years pupil premium will receive them in the post.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">The council said more than 4,700 pupils would benefit from the scheme this Easter.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Currently, eligible families have to apply for free school meals for their children, although a group of MPs recently <!-- --><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c2344p7nz05o\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 beIoQm\" rel=\"noopener\">called for them<!-- --><\/a> to be enrolled automatically.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cz95gjxle5ko\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A council has committed to continuing to provide free school meals for children over the Easter holidays. Primary and secondary school pupils in Herefordshire who are entitled to benefits-related free school meals will be given vouchers to cover the cost of lunch during the break from school. Carole Gandy, from Herefordshire Council, said: &#8220;The rise [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/3542\/live\/b44cc450-116e-11f0-b234-07dc7691c360.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[3483,508,212944,10243,8856,12872,192],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275877,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275875\/revisions\/275877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}