Following the publication of the Childhood Obesity Strategy, Sharon Hodgson MP has written a HuffPost blog on the need for the Government to introduce a plan to address child holiday hunger.

In the blog, Sharon Hodgson MP highlights research by SCHOOLS North East which showed that 14% of children in England rely upon a free school meal, which rises to 18% in the North East and the need to offer support to these children, as many will not have access to healthy food over the holidays.

In the blog, Sharon Hodgson MP calls on the Government to commission research into child holiday hunger, which would follow on from work done by the Healthy Living Lab at Northumbria and the APPG School Food’s Holiday Hunger Task Group, to help develop a child holiday hunger policy and to help create resources and training for providers of holiday provision, which includes a meal and enrichment activities.

The blog can be read here. 

You can also read Sharon Hodgson MP’s statement on the Childhood Obesity Strategy here.

You can read a speech by Sharon Hodgson MP on the need for child holiday hunger to be included in the Childhood Obesity Strategy, from back in January 2016 here.