Summer scheme gives Wrexham families nutritious meals and essentials

Families across Wrexham struggling with the cost of living were given a helping hand this summer by one of Wales’s biggest food distributors.

Harlech Foodservice worked with councils across the region to supply tasty and nutritious meals and snacks plus store cupboard essentials to take home this summer.

It was part of a Welsh Government scheme which saw qualifying pupils from Wrexham, Denbighshire and Flintshire benefit from 12 days of activities at their schools in the first three weeks of the summer holidays.

As part of that scheme children at participating schools in Wrexham received free breakfast and lunch to bookend a morning of fun overseen by volunteer members of staff.

Harlech Key Account Manager David Roberts, who helped organise the deliveries, said: “It went down very well with the schools – they loved it.

“It wasn’t just a question of delivering supplies, we also had to look at the nutritional value of what we provide because this was about healthy eating and at the same time keeping the children interested in what they were eating.

“It’s no good providing nutritious food that they don’t like because they just wouldn’t eat it so we had to make sure it was tasty as well because much of what we do now with schools and healthcare is about environmental and social benefit.

“This was funded by Welsh Government so we had to ensure that we were seen to be giving back something to the communities where we operate whether we’re providing school meals or for the NHS in Wales.

“That’s a big consideration for us and it’s the right thing to do and at the same time we wanted to give them nutritious food they wanted to eat and, as always, wherever possible we sourced that food as locally possible so that the money spent stays in Wales.”

Helen Jones, of Wrexham Council’s Healthy Schools team, said: “The scheme ran from Monday to Thursday for the first three weeks of the summer holidays and six primary schools took part with teachers dedicating their free time to supervise.

“It is something we have done in Wrexham since 2018 when we were one of the first local authorities in be involved and this year we have received additional funding for Bags Bwyd.

“This means at the end of the 12 days of activities we were able to send the pupils home with a bag of everyday essentials to help families cope during the current cost of living crisis.

“We worked with the team at Harlech Foodservice to work out what was available to provide store club staples to take home as well as providing healthy lunches and breakfasts.

“This would also not have been possible without the help of the Team at Youth Justice Service and the young people who helped to pack the bags and deliver them out to schools.”

Harlech Foodservice Director of Healthcare and Education Mark Lawton said: “It proved really popular with the schools and as well as Wrexham we were working with Denbighshire, Flintshire on Food and Fun and with Anglesey as well for the first time.

“We didn’t just drop the consignments at the school gates either, we brought them in and we helped pack the bags too.

“We also co-ordinated the orders, working with the council to put the list of products together. It wasn’t just a shopping list for us, we worked on what the bags should contain.

“This summer 300 bags went out in Wrexham alone and there was excellent take-up across all four counties with over 1500 pupils involved enjoying healthy and tasty food as part of their programme of activities.

Harlech Foodservices has bases at Criccieth, in Gwynedd, Chester and Merthyr Tydfil and between the three locations, the company employs around 200 staff and runs a fleet of vehicles to deliver up to 5,000 product lines to cafés, restaurants, pubs and public sector customers across Wales, Shropshire, the Midlands and the North West.