Hull catering staff, who have supplied thousands of meals to school children and the city’s most vulnerable throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, have been praised for their “heroic” efforts.

Over the summer holidays, Hull Catering continues to feed thousands of children as part of the Hull City Council Healthy Holiday Scheme, where children get a healthy packed lunch containing a wholemeal sandwich, fresh fruit and salad every day of the holidays.

The scheme supplies around 450 packed lunches per day. Catering staff have also produced thousands of food parcels for some of the city’s most vulnerable who have been shielding during the pandemic.

This has been coordinated through the city’s community hubs that were set-up at the start of the pandemic to support and protect residents.

Councillor Daren Hale, portfolio holder for school catering at Hull City Council, said: “Our staff responded heroically at the start of the pandemic to ensure no eligible child was left behind.”Following the much-publicised intervention and work from footballer Marcus Rashford in highlighting the importance of free school meals, the council quickly mobilised to deliver additional support to families through the healthy holiday scheme.”

Councillor Hester Bridges, chair of Hull’s Health and Wellbeing Board, said: “All our school cooks and assistants are experts at promoting healthy eating and are trained to produce great-looking and child-friendly meals.”The school meals provided by Hull Catering surpass nationally required School Food Standards, and have attained silver level of the nationally recognised Food for Life programme, which addresses a wide range of issues, including nutrition, sustainability and food poverty.”

Hull’s school meals service is delivered by Hull Catering and provides lunches for around 11,000 pupils per day. Hull Catering works closely with schools to provide a quality school meals service. The service supplies fresh fruit and vegetables daily, doesn’t include sugary drinks and all desserts are fruit-based. The service also provides fresh daily bread, salad bars and is silver Food For Life accredited, which means the service uses sustainable foods.

Councillor Bridges added: “I want to say a big thank to all our catering staff for the vital work they do in feeding our city’s vulnerable residents and children.”