School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom.
Front Public Health. 2021 Sep 30;9:661345. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.661345. eCollection 2021.
Holiday clubs play a pivotal role in providing food and vital enrichment opportunities to alleviate food insecurity among children during the school holidays (holiday hunger). The need for these opportunities increased substantially for families throughout 2020, as food insecurity quadrupled in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this qualitative study, holiday club staff from England and Wales reflected on the adaptations they implemented in order to maintain food supplies and food-related enrichment activities for families during the first UK national Covid-19 lockdown and subsequently throughout the summer of 2020. Staff also reflected on the opportunities and challenges related to implementing these adaptations during this period. Twenty-five holiday club staff engaged in video-based interviews during August and September 2020. The findings revealed a range of innovative changes to holiday club food provision, and the challenges and opportunities faced varied across holiday clubs. Challenges during the pandemic in some clubs included staff shortages (typically due to furloughing and/or increased working demands) and difficulties sourcing adequate funding. However, staff identified that the opportunities for holiday clubs included enhanced partnership working during the pandemic, increased engagement with digital technology to communicate with families and deliver their online cooking sessions, and their ability to continue providing food and much needed creative opportunities for children unable to attend school and/or the holiday club. The ability of clubs to adapt their models of working when faced with adversity was essential in protecting their organisational resilience and delivering their vital services. The findings emphasise the important role that holiday clubs play in their communities and highlight their willingness to adapt and expand their role in response to the pandemic to continue to tackle food insecurity and provide vital food and food-related enrichment opportunities to families. The findings also identify lessons that can be applied to practise in the future.
假日俱乐部在为儿童提供食物和重要的丰富机会方面发挥着关键作用，以缓解学校假期（假日饥饿）期间的粮食不安全问题。由于 2020 年英国新冠疫情期间粮食不安全状况增加了两倍，整个 2020 年，这些机会对家庭的需求大大增加。在这项定性研究中，来自英格兰和威尔士的假日俱乐部工作人员反思了他们为维持家庭在英国第一次全国新冠封锁期间和随后的 2020 年夏季的食品供应和与食品相关的丰富活动而实施的适应措施。工作人员还反思了在这一期间实施这些适应措施的机会和挑战。2020 年 8 月至 9 月期间，25 名假日俱乐部工作人员参与了视频采访。调查结果显示，假日俱乐部的食品供应有了一系列创新的变化，而各个俱乐部面临的挑战和机遇也各不相同。在一些俱乐部，大流行期间的挑战包括员工短缺（通常是由于休假和/或工作需求增加）以及难以获得足够的资金。然而，工作人员发现，假日俱乐部的机会包括在大流行期间加强伙伴关系，更多地利用数字技术与家庭沟通并提供他们的在线烹饪课程，以及他们能够继续为无法上学和/或参加假日俱乐部的儿童提供食物和急需的创意机会。俱乐部在面临逆境时调整工作模式的能力对于保护其组织的恢复力和提供其重要服务至关重要。研究结果强调了假日俱乐部在社区中的重要作用，并突出了他们愿意适应和扩大角色以应对大流行，继续解决粮食不安全问题，并为家庭提供重要的食物和与食物相关的丰富机会。研究结果还确定了可以在未来实践中应用的经验教训。
