FAMILIES who rely on free school meals are struggling to give their children a daily hot meal during the summer holidays, a charity has warned.

The fuel bank, which was launched in Durham in 2015, said about 40 per cent of the parents who use the service believe they will struggle to feed their children one hot meal a day during the school holidays, while 60 per cent are making a choice between “heating and eating” on a weekly basis.

Stuart Hudson, manager of Durham Food Bank, which distributes vouchers on behalf of the fuel bank, said: “For families who have no extra money at all and for those that usually receive free school dinners, it is very challenging to make sure their children are getting a nutritious hot meal every day. There will be lots of children this summer who go hungry or won’t get a hot meal at all.”

This summer the food bank, which handed out 17,517 food packages in 2017, is working with groups organising holiday activities, like film clubs, to try and make sure as many children as possible get a hot meal.

Mr Hudson said the cost of additional food, electricity, childcare and activities to entertain children was putting a strain on family budgets.

He said: “It does become very, very expensive. If you’re already on a really tight budget, to add the six-week holiday on it does cause problems.

“We did a survey through the summer holidays and one of the biggest things that came out was people asking us to provide children’s activities because people on low incomes and tight budgets can’t afford to go on a decent holiday or pay for activities every day. It’s just way outside their budget."

He added: “Toward the end of the six weeks is when we see more families, particularly single parents, coming to us.

“We see people who have been basically financially wiped out. It’s then it really starts to bite.”

Energy company npower launched the fuel bank in Durham in 2015 and has since extended the scheme elsewhere.

Durham, the largest scheme nationally, operates from 22 foodbank centres, and more than 11,600 vouchers have been handed out since April 2015, helping about 24,500 people.

Matthew Cole, trustee of the Fuel Bank charity, said: “Most of us look forward to the summer holiday as a happy time for families to be together – but for people living in real hardship, the holidays bring their own stresses and extra costs.

“That’s why we’re keen to extend the reach of the Fuel Bank to help as many people as possible.”

Meanwhile, community groups across County Durham are providing programmes which include food as a way of tackling holiday hunger.

The East Durham Rural Area Action Partnership has given about £17,000 to different projects tackling food poverty in the area, including summer clubs in Bowburn, the Trimdons, Fishburn and Deaf Hill, and has added £10,000 to the pot for future projects.

And Durham County Council is also handing out free snacks at its leisure centres and libraries this summer in a bid to ease the pressure on struggling families.

Caroline Todd, organiser of the King’s Church Darlington Foodbank, said: "We always see an increase during the summer holidays, but the reality is usage is increasing about 20 per cent year on year.

“Last summer during the school holidays, in one month we gave out 415 individual bags of food (the amount of meals depended on the size of the family). In June of this year, we gave out 570, and we expect that to rise even more in the summer.

“We are seeing more families are using us than ever before."

She added: “It is going to be challenging over the summer and we are likely to have periods when we are short. We have some great donors but they will be going on holiday so we need all the help we can get. We have to cater for individual needs and there are people with no cooking facilities or any gas or electricity.”