Parents whose children avail of free school meals in term time have told BBC News NI they are worried about feeding their families over the summer holidays.
Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK where support with food costs for low income families is not available through the summer holidays. “We’ve had classroom assistants that are bringing in food, breadsticks, snacks, lots of things under their desks to give to children throughout the day because they know they are hungry.
They continued: “The department recognises how disappointing this decision has been for the families who have previously benefitted from these payments, particularly with recent cost of living rises." She said summer should be a time to look forward to, but that losing the money "just takes that all away, the enjoyment of summer".Kerri Havern works at the Caring Coins Café in Newry, and said they were "very concerned" about children in the local area.