Families in Salford will continue to benefit from food cost support during the school holidays, as Salford City Council provides further support to households facing the ongoing cost of living pressures.
At the council’s Cabinet meeting today (8th September), it was agreed to continue the city’s existing school holiday food support scheme for the October half-term, Christmas holidays and February half-term.
The decision will provide eligible families with continued financial support during the remaining school holiday periods of the 2026/27 financial year, giving additional support at a time when the cost of feeding children can place extra pressure on family budgets.
The council is committing an estimated £1.045 million to continue the existing provision whilst working through the impact for families of the significant changes to Free School Meal (FSM) eligibility introduced nationally.
Councillor Jim Cammell, Lead Member for Children’s and Young People’s Services, said:
“We know that the cost of living continues to put pressure on families, and that school holidays can bring additional costs for parents and carers.
“Food is one of the everyday essentials where families can feel that pressure most, which is why we are continuing our school holiday support through to February.
“This will provide important breathing space for eligible families during the October half-term, Christmas and February half-term, while we take the time to understand the impact of the changes to Free School Meal eligibility.”
Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, Lead Member for Housing and Anti-Poverty, said:
“We welcome the national expansion of free school meals, which means more children will receive support during term time. At the same time, we need to understand what these changes mean locally and how our wider support can best reach families who need it.
“The Government’s Crisis Resilience Fund gives us an opportunity to take a longer-term, strategic approach to supporting residents facing financial hardship. We will bring forward further proposals later this year on how this funding should be used in the future, including holiday food provision.”
The council has previously used government funding to provide holiday food support to families eligible for free school meals and will now build on this work by taking a more coordinated, preventative approach to crisis support, resilience and prevention.
Further proposals on the longer-term use of the Crisis Resilience Fund, including future holiday food support, will be brought to Cabinet later this year as part of the council’s budget and medium-term financial planning.