FREE school meals during the school holidays will no longer be available for children in Wales, it has been revealed.

The news was revealed in a letter sent to parents of children at Newport's St Joseph's RC High School on Thursday.

Parents were told that "regretfully, we (St Joseph's) have to inform you that Welsh Government will be ceasing the provision of holiday vouchers for free school meal pupils with effect immediately".

"The vouchers were introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a form of time-limited support to help families," the notice continued.

"Whilst Welsh Government have been able to support several temporary continuations of the scheme, it has now been confirmed that there will be no further extension to cover the summer holiday period or beyond."

However, the School Holiday Enrichment Programme (SHEP) will remain in place.

Under the Food and Fun brand, it is a school-based scheme which provides healthy meals, food and nutrition education, physical activity and enrichment sessions to children in areas of socio-economic disadvantage during the school holidays. 

The programme is managed by the Welsh Local Government Association.

Financial support is also available at gov.wales/here-help-cost-living

A Welsh Government spokesperson confirmed that free school meals would be ending during school holidays with immediate effect.

They said: “Extending free school meals into the holidays was a time-limited crisis intervention in response to the pandemic.

“Following a number of extensions, we confirmed in March that we would fund it until the end of the May half term holiday.

“This summer, a wide range of holiday projects will be available across Wales, including the Food and Fun scheme, which we fund and will be available in all 22 local authority areas for the first time.

“We continue to support families through the cost-of-living crisis and have invested more than £3.3 billion in programmes and schemes which put money back into people’s pockets.”