Feeding Birkenhead has been set up by food banks, churches and voluntary groups to implement the Feeding Britain initiative at a local level, with the help of local MP Frank Field.
There are 305 families with children that are registered as homeless across Merseyside this year. This is up from 279 in 2013-14.
One of the events running through the week was the Feeding Birkenhead Play Scheme. The initiative was held at Oxton Gateway Project alongside the Wirral Christian Centre, which has recently begun working with Manna Community Kitchen to provide food at the clubs.
Each day the average number of children who attended was 35. The day consisted of games to start, team activities and stories. After about an hour the children would eat. Depending on the donated food it would most often be sausages, bacon and toast as well as smoothies, fruit cups and cereal bars. The day ended with craft-based activities.
Oxton Gateway Project also twinned the session with their free school uniform project where parents could pick up recycled uniforms for free.
Alex Fisher, Oxton Gateway Project’s coordinator, told JMU Journalism: “Feeding Children is a pleasure regardless of their situation and being able to provide a community activity during the half term for free has always been something ourselves and the church would do with joy.
“We feel that projects like this that help our community, weather it be providing activities for kids, feeding the hungry or providing uniform for free are what community is about. Being there for each other. The parents enjoy having something for the kids to do, the kids enjoy the activities and the food is a bonus.”
Reverend Lynne Cullens, from Food and Fun at the Tranmere Community Project, told JMU Journalism: “The Feeding Birkenhead Play Scheme last week went really well. Over the course of the week we had seventy visits by forty two different children and the feedback from both children and their parents and carers was very positive.”