NORTH Ayrshire Council’s award-winning holiday school meals reached record numbers over the summer.

An amazing 14,423 meals were served this summer – which is a 48% rise in the number of meals served in 2016 and 8% more than in 2017.

The programme – which also involves an hour of activities for the primary pupils - continues to grow in popularity and has been enhanced with the parternship working of local community groups.

During the summer, Fullarton Community Centre, Vineburgh Community Centre, Whiteless Community Centre, Woodwynd Community Centre, The Playz (Pryde), along with the Church of the Nazarene in Ardrossan, all supported the campaign.

They served up the food provided by the Council, while local schools continued to run the activities and holiday meal service.

Councillor Jim Montgomerie, Cabinet Member for Place, said: “The number of meals we are serving up is just phenomenal. We are so proud that we are reaching out and supporting so many people.

“It is great to see so many community groups getting involved and sharing the ethos and spirit we have at the Council.

“We now set aside around £70,000 per annum on this project and believe it is money very well spent. The issue of holiday hunger is a real one and we will continue to build our Holiday Meals service to try and make it less of an issue here in North Ayrshire.

“I would also like to say a special thanks to the staff who worked so hard over all of our holiday periods to ensure the programme was such a success and reached so many young people.”

Since being originally launched in three schools, the holiday school meal programme has gone from strength to strength.

It ensures that every child, no matter their background, has access to a warm, healthy meal when they’re not at school, with the added benefit of an outstanding activity programme.

In 2017 elected members approved plans to make North Ayrshire Scotland's first "Child Friendly" Council. A key principle of this will be our commitment to making sure children in North Ayrshire have access to a nutritious meal every day. The Council is currently exploring a variety of options and schemes to enhance their meals offer.