A leading charity has described the patchwork provision of food support for young people across the country as a "postcode lottery".

It has been found that more councils stopped offering supermarket vouchers to families with children in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM) during the 2022 Christmas break.

While many local authorities offer no payments at all, some offer regular assistance for eligible families.

So how does Rutland compare?

In Rutland, food vouchers are offered, rather than cash, but value is unspecified and may vary.

The neighbouring Lincolnshire offer £100 per child, while Leicestershire offer HSF food vouchers to households with children - £20 per adult per week, £15 per child per week as well as £40 per child over Christmas.

The counties all come out above average, which is only set to be increased following the support funding allocated to both Lincolnshire and Rutland by the government.

The Food Foundation said it was "vitally important" all children eligible for Free School Meals had support during the school holidays.

But the Local Government Association (LGA) said that some authorities simply could not continue to provide the vouchers, which came about following a campaign by England footballer Marcus Rashford, with the government grant funding they currently received. 

The Shared Data Unit found:

• 93 out of 124 councils continue to offer holiday food vouchers to children receiving Free School Meals (FSM) during the 2022 Christmas holidays.
• Eleven councils are offering cash to FSM recipients instead.
• Twenty-one councils are no longer running a voucher scheme or equivalent cash scheme over Christmas.

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