THIS week schools and businesses across Ayrshire will be donning Christmas jumpers to back the latest Cash for Kids appeal.

But behind this fun campaign lies a serious message.

For the Ayr charity’s main thrust is not providing a treat for the kids they help, but the basics of a warm coat - and enough food to eat.

As charity manager Lynne Bennett explains: “Cash for Kids’ main thrust is food poverty. This is a basic human right, not a luxury.” In Ayrshire, where some communities dwarf Glasgow for levels of child poverty, the need for help is growing.

But the problem remains a hidden one.

Lynne says: “We have to burst the myths that the people who need help are all on benefits.

“There are homes out there where, to the outside world, everything seems normal.

“The kids will be coming out to school, looking fine.

“The parents say that they are cutting back on what they are eating, that they are choosing to leave the car behind because they are on a keep fit drive.

“The reality is, they just can’t make ends meet. There is evidence that up to one in four parents are doing without food to give to their kids.” The extent of the problem is reflected in the fact that the Cash for Kids have received an astounding 3,000 more applications for help this year.

The latest batch of grants were given out this week, allowing social workers to target the kids in most need and offer them £25 for a special treat...or in many cases, a simpler choice.

Lynne says: “Sometimes we were finding that a child would turn round and say they would rather have a new coat than a treat.

“That’s why we launched the appeal to help provide that.” A growing number of these grants are targeted at kinship carers - where grandparents take over the care of children.

Lynne says: “Children do much better living in a family environment than when they go into the care system.

“But the government don’t support these families. A lot of grandparents are trying to bring up two or three young children, when they themselves are on benefits.

“Ayrshire has more kinship care cases than Glasgow and Dumfries and Galloway put together.” As well as grants to individual kids at Christmas, the charity’s yearly fundraising total of a quarter of a million pounds also goes to help groups who are providing a safety net for children where conditions at home are bleak.

These include breakfast clubs, after-school care and other similar projects.

“Having somewhere like that to go means these kids can get a hot meal, and can some space to relax, and maybe catch up on their homework,” says Lynne.

“For many of these children, there is little or no food at home, and often no electricity. So that support is vital.” With the Ayrshire reality mirroring that of Scotland – where 59 per cent of child pvoerty nationwide comes in homes where one person is working – the need to fundraise is constant.

On Friday the Cash for Kids Christmas lunch, took place, raising £87, 246.25.

The children will enjoy their own special events over coming weeks thanks to this special charity, and their supporters in the local community.

This includes a visit to the Santa’s Grotto at Seamill Hydro on Thursday, December 11.

Lynne says: “Events like this mean we can give these kids an experience they normally would not have. We can’t thank enough all of those who make these things happen.”