Harvest Fine Foods, City Catering and Caterfood fight holiday hunger

Harvest Fine Foods, Caterfood Buying Group and City Catering have teamed up once again to help fight holiday hunger.

Vulnerable children who would normally have access to free school meals can miss meals during the school holidays. Harvest Fine Foods has been involved in producing Cook at Home boxes since 2020. These boxes feature ingredients for five recipes including simple pizza and Spanish omelette, and over 1,200 of these boxes are given to families.

Nick Mepham, day warehouse manager at Harvest Fine Foods, who oversees the project, said: “The Summer boxes are always a mammoth undertaking, as it is a busy period for Harvest, but many hands make light work with the business coming together to get the job done.”

The boxes were delivered in the week leading up to the Summer holidays, with 31 schools in the Southampton area receiving the boxes ready for distribution.

Gary McMahon, CEO of City Catering Southampton said: “I love this initiative because it allows us and our partners, Harvest Fine Foods and Caterfood, to directly target and support the most vulnerable families in Southampton. Cooking and eating a meal together is at the core of family life, and supporting that with our boxes of ingredients, specially developed recipes and preparation videos, feels truly aligned with our values. We hope that our families will really enjoy making some lovely, tasty dishes together.”

Phil Atyeo, managing director of Caterfood Buying Group, added: “It is important to me that Caterfood Buying Group supports projects like Holiday Hunger, as no child should have to go without food during the summer holidays when schools are not open. We understand the difficulty facing parents in the current economic environment and I am very proud that we have been able to support this project this year. I hope that what we have been able to offer has a positive impact on the summer holidays of many children and their families.”