CHILDREN across Redditch who are eligible for free school meals will benefit from a national voucher scheme allowing them to continue to access meals whilst they stay at home.

This scheme allows schools to provide every eligible child with a weekly shopping voucher worth £15 to spend at supermarkets while schools are closed due to coronavirus.

Schools can continue to provide meals for collection or delivery themselves, but where this is not possible, the scheme will allow schools to provide vouchers to families electronically, or as a gift card for those without internet access.

These vouchers can then be spent on food at most big supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and M&S, with the Department working to get more shops to join the scheme as soon as possible.

Rachel said: “This is welcome and very reassuring news for many families across Redditch and I encourage those eligible for the scheme to make good use of it to ensure all children get healthy nutritious meals every day.”

Parents will receive the voucher through their child’s school, which can then be redeemed online via a code, or sent to their house as a gift card and used at supermarkets across the country.

Schools will be emailed by the Department for Education’s chosen supplier, Edenred. Schools will be able to order vouchers individually online and have a code sent via email to each family. The family can then show the code on their phone at the supermarket.

They will also be able to arrange a bulk order of multiple codes and receive an excel spreadsheet to help schools organise sending on to a family or create an eGift card for a preferred supermarket to be posted to a family if parents cannot get online.