Budleigh cafe's school meals' initiative

It says children shouldn't go hungry

A cafe in Budleigh Salterton has stepped in to help low-income families in the area during half-term.

The Gingerbread House has already run one scheme called 'pay with a post-it' where people could pay for someone else to have a coffee. People who were finding times tough took a post-it note from a blackboard and exchanged it for a drink "served with a smile and already paid for by a stranger."

Now, after parliament rejected a proposal by footballer Marcus Rashford for children who receive free lunches during term time to get vouchers in the holidays, the High Street cafe has a new plan. Saying it doesn't believe any child should be hungry, it has invited families who qualify for free meals to picked up packed lunches for their children. 

That's caught the imagination so much that customers and other residents wanted to help too. Now the Gingerbread House's owners have set up an online funding page to help them provide more children's meals.

Writing on Facebook, they say: "As so many lovely people have asked if they can donate towards the cost of doing this, we have created a Gofundme page. If we receive more donations than we need, we can use any excess to do the same in the Christmas holidays. We felt this was the easiest way to keep donations separate from our normal business banking and to make it accountable." 

The fundraising page is at: www.gofundme.com/freepackedlunches