COMMUNITY groups and businesses across West Devon rose to the heart-warming challenge last week of providing children with free school meals.

The motion from the Labour party to feed the poorest families in the holiday periods up to Easter was voted down in the House of Commons, provoking a heartfelt response from the West Devon community who came together to make sure that no child would go hungry.

Offers of help included packed lunches provided by many local establishments including Tavistock’s Mime, Lemon Grove, Poppy’s Cafe, Koffi Lodge in Gunnislake and from Betty Cottles Inn, in Okehampton.

The Okehampton business said it had provided home-made microwave meals and packed lunches for around 400 children, which were all delivered to children within the Okehampton area.

While Trudy Eperon of Lemon Grove said that the cafe had provided a total of 434 meals, mostly to children locally in Tavistock, Bere Alston and Horrabridge.

She said: ‘We had £842 in donations which provided 280 meals, plus Tesco Tavistock donated food for 100 meals and the remaining 54 meals were paid for by Lemon Grove Cafe. Tavistock Locals Help were super helpful doing a lot of the deliveries for us.’

Meanwhile Devon County Council has been asked to ensure all eligible children receive free school meal vouchers for the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

The council said it would continue to work with district councils to ensure hardship support was available to vulnerable children and families across the county this winter and pledged extra funding to ensure no child goes hungry.

Labour group leader Cllr Rob Hannaford has put forward a motion to December’s full council meeting that would see the council resolve to use some of the allocated hardship funding to ensure that all eligible children in the Devon County Council area of responsibility receive free school meal vouchers for the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

Cllr Hannaford said: ‘I hope that this motion will clarify that we need leadership on this key issue from the county council directly.

‘The Government has totally misread the mood of the country on this problem and it has now become a symbolic issue that has starkly highlighted again the widespread poverty and hardship that continues to blight our nation through the plight of hungry children.’

The Government had referred to the £63-million that was allocated to local councils and suggested this was for free school meals.

But Cllr John Hart, leader of Devon County Council, said: ‘This money was distributed in June and was intended to ensure that no one who was badly affected by the pandemic should go hungry. That money has already been spent in Devon in supporting the most vulnerable.

‘I am now writing to the Government to outline that due to our financial position we are limited in our ability to provide this support beyond the spring. We therefore urgently call on the Government to properly fund support for all vulnerable people in Devon affected by the financial impacts of the pandemic.

‘I pay tribute to the local communities, shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants across Devon that are doing their bit in their locality to provide food for children.’