PARENTS in Glasgow are skipping meals to feed their children during the summer holidays.

Food poverty is forcing parents of schoolchildren to go hungry outside term-time, findings have revealed.

An evaluation by the Food, Families and Futures programme has found that ‘Holiday Hunger’ and ‘Summer Learning Loss’ is negatively impacting on schoolchildren’s lives.

As well as going hungry, families can become isolated, with some ethnic minorities struggling to integrate into the community and spelling and reading levels significantly decreasing.

To combat the issues, primaries in Ibrox and Dalmarnock were opened during the summer holiday last year to offer lunch, activities, free play and trips out to children and families.

The programme is set to be expanded to five other schools in Glasgow after the results were deemed “positive and encouraging”, reflecting an increase in the number of families in need of help.

Professor Greta Defeyter, of Northumbria University, who led the evaluation, said: “We found that parents were skipping meals to feed their children across the summer holidays but the intervention of running the holiday club actually prevented that from happening.

“We collected food diaries from the children when they attended the club versus when they didn’t.

“We found that they consumed more fruit and vegetables on days when they attended the holiday club, meaning their diet was healthier.

“The holiday clubs help both parents and children in fighting social isolation across the holiday period and enabled children to form new friendships in time for the going back to school in the Autumn term.

“Likewise with ethnic minorities families, it allowed them to practice their English across the summer holiday period. Often they are just with their own ethnic group and not practising English, so that is really good for them being integrated within the community.”

Other findings revealed that performances in reading and spelling improved at a greater rate for kids who attended the club.

Maureen McKenna, Executive Director of Education, Glasgow City Council said: "The outcomes from last year’s FFF pilot were so positive and encouraging and I’m delighted that many more of our families in need across the city will benefit this year as well.

“The beginning of the school holidays is a joy to so many but creates additional, unwanted pressure to people experiencing food poverty. This worthy initiative will help reduce some of this stress for families across Glasgow.”