Supporting families through COVID over the Summer Holiday

You may have read in the local media that Oldham Council has secured from Government over £917,000 to support families with children through its COVID local support fund, which will be used to cover the Summer holiday 2021.

We, as your local school, are working with the Council to deliver food vouchers to families with children entitled to income based free school meals before schools close for the Summer break.

We want to ensure that those eligible for free school meals on the grounds of low income receive a food voucher to cover the Summer holiday at £12.50 per week per child for a maximum 6-week period.

The most effective way of ensuring vulnerable families receive the vouchers that can be used in the Oldham supermarket of their choice is via a third-party online hub – known as eVouchers.com

eVouchers.com is a data integration company already used by many schools in Oldham who offer a free school meal voucher system. This voucher system has a live link to your school’s data therefore automatically recognises the students who are eligible for Free School Meals. The system should be quick and easy to use and produces the vouchers that can be used in most Oldham supermarkets.

If your child is entitled to income based free school meals, please look out for an email and/or text confirming that your voucher has been issued.

For more information go to: https://help.evouchers.com/hc/ - this includes a step by step guide of how to access the vouchers (once your school has issued them to you).

If you have any questions, please contact the school in the first instance.

For any families that are really struggling for food and provisions over Summer, please visit the Oldham Council website www.oldham.gov.uk/wecanhelp which lists financial support and benefits that are available for residents.

The HAF (Holiday Activities and Food Programme) is also running over the school summer holidays for children and young people aged 5 to 16. The full programme can be found here: www.oldham.gov.uk/HAF