THE West Somerset community this week rallied round to help the children of families struggling from the financial impact of coronavirus by providing money for free lunches for over 150 youngsters a day during the present half-term holiday.

“Money has been pouring in and the amount of support we are receiving is fantastic,” said Minehead town councillor Danielle Prosser, who with her mother Wendy Mandley, is making and distributing free lunches around the district from her Coaster coffee shop in Minehead.

And in Williton children who would have received a school meals voucher for half term are being provided with a free meal by John’s Chippy fish and chip shop in the village on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

Danielle stepped up to offer free meals to children during half term after MPs voted against a motion to provide 1.4 million disadvantaged children with food vouchers: “We are a small close-knit community but wages aren‘t very high and lots of people have lost their jobs through the pandemic,” she said.

“Many people have been furloughed and children were off school for a lot longer than was expected. We just felt we had to do something but we never thought we would get such amazing support from the community which has enabled us to help so many people.

“Because of the amount of donations we will extend the scheme until next Monday and now intend to continue it during the Christmas half term, probably up to the day before Christmas Eve.”

The demand is now so great that Danielle and Wendy are at work at 6am preparing lunch-bags containing sandwiches, fruit, crisps and a drink, which are then distributed in the coffee shop van to families in Minehead, Porlock, Williton, Carhampton and Watchet.In Williton, John Newsome, owner of John’s Chippy, is also giving goody bags to youngsters between 6pm and 7pm tomorrow (Saturday October 31) for Halloween.

He said: “You must be dressed up for a goody bag and you do not need to enter the shop – they will be given outside, all in line with current restrictions.”

Following a campaign led by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, a growing number of South West businesses and local authorities have pledged help with free half term meals. For instance, Somerset County Council this week asked families in need of urgent food supplies to contact the coronavirus helpline

The council also confirmed that it was stepping up its efforts to provide more school holiday support with a £125,000 scheme.

And with demand likely to increase ahead of school holidays, Christmas and throughout the winter, the council is spending a further £125,000 to provide crucial meals and funding for needy families.

This will see school caterers expected to produce 26,000 meals by Christmas, and partners Fareshare are hoping to bring 140 tonnes of food to supplement Somerset’s community groups and food banks.

The full story is in tomorrow’s Free Press