Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

COVID-19 has created new uncertainties that challenge the provision of critical support services to vulnerable families and children. Food programmes need to ensure that vulnerable children receive nutritious food, both inside and outside of school. They also need to facilitate access to other support services, and be delivered in ways that maintain the dignity and respect of recipients, their families and communities. Consider the need to:

• Integrate access to sufficient, nutritious food as part of an overarching plan to combat COVID-19, promote healthy societies, and mitigate long-term health issues
• Establish an assurance programme with service level agreements to increase confidence in emergency food provision, create feedback systems, and enable rapid amendment to services
• Provide guidance to parents so they know what services they are entitled to access
• Ensure parents are aware of "wrap-around" services e.g. anti-poverty schemes
• Analyse the impacts of food programmes on children's diets
• Consult parents and community groups about how to build dignity and choice into emergency and ongoing food provision, and develop opportunities for active involvement planning and delivery
• Develop community-based nutrition awareness and home-based cooking training programmes to support parents in providing balanced meals on a low budget
• Strengthen working partnerships with local government agencies, civic groups, voluntary sector, and social arms of corporations to improve implementation of food programmes
• Remove financial barriers to receiving food support and minimize stigma about 'handouts' e.g. by using a 'pay-as-you-feel' system