good afternoon the American playwright
and social activist Harrison once said
small acts multiplied by millions of
people can transform the world now I’m
going to ask you to indulge me just for
a moment because I also would like to
talk to you about my summer holidays I
have two young children under 10 and
we’ve had a marvelous summer we have
spent so many days going out with
friends we’ve been to some fabulous
interesting places we went camping for a
week with friends in Norfolk and then on
a family camping trip to France for a
fortnight where we basically spent our
time cycling in the swimming pool
playing on beach and playing in the sea
it’s fair to say my kids have had some
brilliant life experiences this summer
for a growing number of children in bath
the reality of their school holidays is
very different indeed for some school
holidays offer little to look forward to
and indeed much to dread less to eat
less physical activity fewer chances to
socialize with their friends and for
some very little of the kinds of
opportunities I’ve just described having
with my kids their summer holidays can
place an intolerable strain on already
stretched budgets additional childcare
costs increased utility bills clothes
the aren’t school uniform and of course
extra meals and snacks children living
in poverty are going hungry in the
holidays parents report skipping meals
in order that their children can eat and
the quality of food often suffers when
budgets are stretched so perhaps a
greater reliance on foods which are
cheaper higher in fat higher in sugar
that provide a high calorific content
but with less nutritional benefit
leading to malnutrition
Foodbank use consistently increases over
school holidays asked as the proportion
of parcels going to children who are
primary school-aged teachers recognize
holiday hunger and its effects there
have been quite a number of studies
undertaken recently in which the
majority of teachers say that they can
see children coming back after holidays
hungry and in fact 40% of teachers in a
2017 nu T survey said that they could
see visible signs of malnourished ment
in children coming back to school after
the long summer break now in case we
forget that these statistics represent
lives which are being damaged I spoke to
a head teacher of a school here in Bath
who told me the story of the pupil who
had come back to school after a one-week
break and being given breakfast in
school that morning that people spent
the rest of the morning vomiting bile
because it was so long since they last
had a proper meal holiday hunger is a
direct result of childhood poverty that
of course the impact of that stretches
far beyond food and malnutrition
so children from poorer backgrounds
consistently lag behind all stages of
their education they suffer from ill
health for longer periods and ultimately
have a shorter life expectancy here in
bath one in five children is living in
poverty that’s increasing both locally
and nationally after two decades of
reductions and a bath it tends to be
concentrated in specific geographical
areas in the most deprived of those
areas four in ten children are living in
poverty that’s about 12 in every class
of 30 well know government’s key
measures of deprivation as the free
school meals rates for some schools and
bath that’s as low as 6% but actually
for others it’s more than ten times that
tackling childhood poverty including
holiday hunger can have a significant
positive effect on lives of children
living here in our city
so what are we doing about this issue
here in Bath back in early 2016 I had a
chance conversation with a friend who’s
in the audience we’ve both seen a bit of
literature about a charity called make
lunch and we both wanted to know a
little bit more fast forward six months
and we found ourselves opening two
volunteer-led
lunch clubs one in tartan and one in
south day and the aim of those is to
provide some activities and then hot
free nutritious to course meal I think
in that time so that’s nearly two years
we have provided 1,400 meals to around
350 children and their families our very
first lunch Club we had 12 kids and
seven adults come along and we were
absolutely delighted we know regularly
get between 60 and 70 in every session
those numbers for us don’t really mean
anything we’ve always said if we can
provide one meal to one child who needs
it who might not have otherwise then
enrichment activities are really
important we work with a number of local
community partners to help us deliver
some of those those parts of our
sessions so currently we’re working with
bath rugby foundation with get sported
and with mortise dance academy to
provide lots of different types of
active sessions we also work with
virgins cook it team they come in and
run healthy snack making sessions with
the kids and hands down and they are the
most popular weeks that we have but they
also then rekelen sides smaller numbers
of our families outside of make lunch
running cookery courses developing basic
skills in producing healthy nutritious
family meals on
we can’t do any of this with our amazing
volunteer team we’re a pretty diverse
lot and many of our children volunteer
with us I have to say having our own
kids there is fantastic I cannot
overstate the contribution they make not
just in terms of you know getting hands
in and hands on with all the activities
but actually in setting the tone for the
session they’re so welcoming
they’re so inviting they’re completely
I’d really like to tell you about a mum
and her two girls who came to our
Christmas lunch club last year they had
been referred to us from the local
women’s hostel they were staying and
waiting to be rehoused having had to
leave their family home due to domestic
violence I spoke to her a couple of
times through the session and she was
able to tell me a little of the
circumstances they were living in at
that moment they were having a really
hard time her two daughters were just
younger than teenage and they were
living in one small room
they really had very little to look
forward to in the days she woke up
dreading what she was going to do to
occupy them in their small space through
each day the invitation to lunch Club
had given them something to look forward
to and actually when I spoke to her
towards the end of the session she told
me that she felt overwhelmed by the
Welcome that they had received and by
the kindness and generosity she felt
they’d experienced some of that was
practical every family took home a
hamper of Christmas food blanket and a
toy new toy for each child kindly
donated by local churches and corporate
sponsors but actually much much more of
it was around the welcome created by our
volunteers the conversations that she’d
had the way she’d felt that there was no
judgment no stigma to her being there
her girls had some opportunities that at
that time she couldn’t give them
they could forget for a minute
where they were and they could just
enjoy making some crafts making some
Christmas gifts for each other
and she could just stop knowing that
they were happy and safe make lunch
nationally is one of many organizations
trying to tackle holiday hunger several
of those along with a number of recent
academic research studies are asked to
submit evidence in 2017 to the old Party
Parliamentary Group on hunger support
hungry holidays they made a number of
recommendations aimed at standardizing
profession across the country
unfortunately those haven’t been
accepted by Parliament they recognized a
four fold benefit clubs such as ours can
have one they reduced some financial
pressures on families to the where
families come along as they do in bath
that builds a look that has a
significant positive impact on family’s
well-being in the longer term three they
can help counter isolation and four in
some cases they can act as a pathway to
employment so another make lunch club
talked of a mum who started coming to
lunch club who then started volunteering
at lunch Club she was encouraged in
volunteering to take her food and
hygiene certificate she did that she ant
taken any exams since she dropped out of
school that led directly to her feeling
more confident confident enough to go
and take English and maths refresher
courses and then directly as a result
gaining employment as a teaching
assistant in a local nursery the impact
of something like this can often be
significant and can be far beyond what
you can see from the outside so make
lunch and bath started is the result of
a chance conversation between two
friends and the willingness to do
something no matter how small that
something felt in the grand scheme of
the problem and I’d really like to
encourage you now if you have an idea on
how to light up past future to bring
change to our city
to just make a start to do something as
Howard Sen said small acts multiplied by
millions of people can transform the
world and I wonder what’s your small act
going to be today
thank you [Applause]
and social activist Harrison once said
small acts multiplied by millions of
people can transform the world now I’m
going to ask you to indulge me just for
a moment because I also would like to
talk to you about my summer holidays I
have two young children under 10 and
we’ve had a marvelous summer we have
spent so many days going out with
friends we’ve been to some fabulous
interesting places we went camping for a
week with friends in Norfolk and then on
a family camping trip to France for a
fortnight where we basically spent our
time cycling in the swimming pool
playing on beach and playing in the sea
it’s fair to say my kids have had some
brilliant life experiences this summer
for a growing number of children in bath
the reality of their school holidays is
very different indeed for some school
holidays offer little to look forward to
and indeed much to dread less to eat
less physical activity fewer chances to
socialize with their friends and for
some very little of the kinds of
opportunities I’ve just described having
with my kids their summer holidays can
place an intolerable strain on already
stretched budgets additional childcare
costs increased utility bills clothes
the aren’t school uniform and of course
extra meals and snacks children living
in poverty are going hungry in the
holidays parents report skipping meals
in order that their children can eat and
the quality of food often suffers when
budgets are stretched so perhaps a
greater reliance on foods which are
cheaper higher in fat higher in sugar
that provide a high calorific content
but with less nutritional benefit
leading to malnutrition
Foodbank use consistently increases over
school holidays asked as the proportion
of parcels going to children who are
primary school-aged teachers recognize
holiday hunger and its effects there
have been quite a number of studies
undertaken recently in which the
majority of teachers say that they can
see children coming back after holidays
hungry and in fact 40% of teachers in a
2017 nu T survey said that they could
see visible signs of malnourished ment
in children coming back to school after
the long summer break now in case we
forget that these statistics represent
lives which are being damaged I spoke to
a head teacher of a school here in Bath
who told me the story of the pupil who
had come back to school after a one-week
break and being given breakfast in
school that morning that people spent
the rest of the morning vomiting bile
because it was so long since they last
had a proper meal holiday hunger is a
direct result of childhood poverty that
of course the impact of that stretches
far beyond food and malnutrition
so children from poorer backgrounds
consistently lag behind all stages of
their education they suffer from ill
health for longer periods and ultimately
have a shorter life expectancy here in
bath one in five children is living in
poverty that’s increasing both locally
and nationally after two decades of
reductions and a bath it tends to be
concentrated in specific geographical
areas in the most deprived of those
areas four in ten children are living in
poverty that’s about 12 in every class
of 30 well know government’s key
measures of deprivation as the free
school meals rates for some schools and
bath that’s as low as 6% but actually
for others it’s more than ten times that
tackling childhood poverty including
holiday hunger can have a significant
positive effect on lives of children
living here in our city
so what are we doing about this issue
here in Bath back in early 2016 I had a
chance conversation with a friend who’s
in the audience we’ve both seen a bit of
literature about a charity called make
lunch and we both wanted to know a
little bit more fast forward six months
and we found ourselves opening two
volunteer-led
lunch clubs one in tartan and one in
south day and the aim of those is to
provide some activities and then hot
free nutritious to course meal I think
in that time so that’s nearly two years
we have provided 1,400 meals to around
350 children and their families our very
first lunch Club we had 12 kids and
seven adults come along and we were
absolutely delighted we know regularly
get between 60 and 70 in every session
those numbers for us don’t really mean
anything we’ve always said if we can
provide one meal to one child who needs
it who might not have otherwise then
enrichment activities are really
important we work with a number of local
community partners to help us deliver
some of those those parts of our
sessions so currently we’re working with
bath rugby foundation with get sported
and with mortise dance academy to
provide lots of different types of
active sessions we also work with
virgins cook it team they come in and
run healthy snack making sessions with
the kids and hands down and they are the
most popular weeks that we have but they
also then rekelen sides smaller numbers
of our families outside of make lunch
running cookery courses developing basic
skills in producing healthy nutritious
family meals on
we can’t do any of this with our amazing
volunteer team we’re a pretty diverse
lot and many of our children volunteer
with us I have to say having our own
kids there is fantastic I cannot
overstate the contribution they make not
just in terms of you know getting hands
in and hands on with all the activities
but actually in setting the tone for the
session they’re so welcoming
they’re so inviting they’re completely
I’d really like to tell you about a mum
and her two girls who came to our
Christmas lunch club last year they had
been referred to us from the local
women’s hostel they were staying and
waiting to be rehoused having had to
leave their family home due to domestic
violence I spoke to her a couple of
times through the session and she was
able to tell me a little of the
circumstances they were living in at
that moment they were having a really
hard time her two daughters were just
younger than teenage and they were
living in one small room
they really had very little to look
forward to in the days she woke up
dreading what she was going to do to
occupy them in their small space through
each day the invitation to lunch Club
had given them something to look forward
to and actually when I spoke to her
towards the end of the session she told
me that she felt overwhelmed by the
Welcome that they had received and by
the kindness and generosity she felt
they’d experienced some of that was
practical every family took home a
hamper of Christmas food blanket and a
toy new toy for each child kindly
donated by local churches and corporate
sponsors but actually much much more of
it was around the welcome created by our
volunteers the conversations that she’d
had the way she’d felt that there was no
judgment no stigma to her being there
her girls had some opportunities that at
that time she couldn’t give them
they could forget for a minute
where they were and they could just
enjoy making some crafts making some
Christmas gifts for each other
and she could just stop knowing that
they were happy and safe make lunch
nationally is one of many organizations
trying to tackle holiday hunger several
of those along with a number of recent
academic research studies are asked to
submit evidence in 2017 to the old Party
Parliamentary Group on hunger support
hungry holidays they made a number of
recommendations aimed at standardizing
profession across the country
unfortunately those haven’t been
accepted by Parliament they recognized a
four fold benefit clubs such as ours can
have one they reduced some financial
pressures on families to the where
families come along as they do in bath
that builds a look that has a
significant positive impact on family’s
well-being in the longer term three they
can help counter isolation and four in
some cases they can act as a pathway to
employment so another make lunch club
talked of a mum who started coming to
lunch club who then started volunteering
at lunch Club she was encouraged in
volunteering to take her food and
hygiene certificate she did that she ant
taken any exams since she dropped out of
school that led directly to her feeling
more confident confident enough to go
and take English and maths refresher
courses and then directly as a result
gaining employment as a teaching
assistant in a local nursery the impact
of something like this can often be
significant and can be far beyond what
you can see from the outside so make
lunch and bath started is the result of
a chance conversation between two
friends and the willingness to do
something no matter how small that
something felt in the grand scheme of
the problem and I’d really like to
encourage you now if you have an idea on
how to light up past future to bring
change to our city
to just make a start to do something as
Howard Sen said small acts multiplied by
millions of people can transform the
world and I wonder what’s your small act
going to be today
thank you [Applause]
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