SOMERSET County Council will continue to provide help to families in need of food support over the school Summer Holidays.

The Department of Work and Pensions has extended its Covid Local Support Grant, providing £1.4million to the council to support vulnerable families.

The grant will fund food vouchers worth £15 per week for children eligible for free school meals over the six-week summer holidays.

The vouchers will be distributed by local schools to make sure the eligible families can access the vouchers.

The council has provided funding for food and vouchers over the October, February, and May half-terms, as well as the Christmas and Easter holidays.

There will be further support for children and young people on free school meals in Somerset thanks to the Happy Healthy Holidays Somerset programme.

The council recently teamed up with Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership to deliver fun activities and healthy food to nearly 1,800 children over the Easter holidays, and plans are in place to significantly expand the offer for the upcoming summer holidays.

There will be more than 80 venues across Somerset offering face-to-face provision during the school break for children aged from 5 to 16, with activities on offer including sports, music workshops, kayaking and much more.

There are places for around 6,000 young people who qualify for free school meals and the opportunity for thousands of other Somerset youngsters to get involved in the activities too.

Council leader Cllr David Fothergill, said: “Thanks to this additional funding, Somerset is in an excellent position to help families in need with food support over the summer holidays.

“This will be bolstered by the Happy Healthy Holidays Somerset programme which will give thousands of children and young people access to a wide variety of activities to keep them active, social and healthy.”

The Happy Healthy Holidays Somerset programme will run for four weeks, and the booking system is now live on the SASP website at sasp.co.uk