Each box contains enough ingredients to make 16 meals, so more than 25,000 meals have been provided in total. Harvest Fine Foods are delivering the first batch of grocery boxes this week to Southampton schools.
The recipes include Homemade Tortillas, French Toast with Fresh Fruit, Christmas Biscuits, Build your own Veggie & Bean Fajitas and Butternut Squash & Sweetcorn Cakes. The boxes come with a recipe card for each main or baked treat.
According to the Food Foundation tracker 15% of UK households, the equivalent to approximately eight million adults and three million children, experienced food insecurity this January.
Gary McMahon, chief executive at City Catering Southampton, said: “Our Cooking at Home project is extremely close to our hearts at City Catering Southampton. We want to help tackle food insecurity and know many families are feeling the pinch this Christmas.
“The rise in food and energy costs are forcing families to make impossible decisions between switching the heating on or buying food. It’s distressing to think of families going hungry, especially at Christmas - we want to do everything we can to help.”
City Catering Southampton continues to raise awareness of Universal Infant Free School Meals to parents, as many don’t realise that all children in Year Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 are automatically entitled to free school meals.