SCHOOL holidays are becoming a burden on West Fife families.

That's the view of a senior councillor just days before the big summer break as a scheme aimed at combatting holiday hunger is to be rolled out in West Fife.

Cafe Inc will open in a range of venues from schools to community centres next month and will provide meals to stop children going hungry during the seven-week break.

A total of 24 schools sit within the 10 per cent most deprived areas of Fife. Five of these are in West Fife – Bellyeoman, Inzievar, Touch, Kelty and St Joseph's primary schools – and it is likely these schools, or facilities nearby, will house cafes although this has not yet been confirmed by Fife Council.

The scheme is being introduced after a successful trial in Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly over the Easter holidays which saw the provision of more than 7,000 meals to children and parents during a two-week period.

While welcoming the initiative, committee convener Councillor Judy Hamilton, blasted the fact that such a scheme was necessary.

“It is a damned disgrace that we are in a situation where we need to provide free food during school holidays," she said. "Every school holiday has become a burden on families. This is an excellent provision and I am so proud that we are able to do it and do right by our children.”

In a report to Fife Council's community and housing services committee, head of communities and neighbourhoods Paul Vaughan said that Scottish Government figures showed that almost one in four of Scotland's children were living in poverty.

"The Plan for Fife, Fife's Local Outcome Improvement Plan, highlights latest estimates that more than 24,000 adults in Fife may be experiencing food insecurity – the inability of one or more members of a household to consume adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food that is useful for health.

"A selection of schools in all seven committee areas will deliver hot school lunches alongside community-based provision managed by local community development teams which will provide a mix of hot lunches and packed lunches to suit activity programmes and capacity."

Councillor Linda Erskine, convener of the Cowdenbeath area committee, said the pilot was very successful in her ward.

"On the first day, 48 meals were served. By the end, we were serving 270 a day,” she said. "What I saw wasn’t just kids, parents were coming together and there was a real buzz about the inclusiveness.

“Parents who didn’t know each other, who were maybe sitting alone, by the end of the first week they were all talking and hanging out in groups. It was wider than just holiday hunger provision.

“It was a really good project that was very well done and we have to congratulate all the staff who went the extra mile to make sure it was a success.”

Councillor Ken Caldwell raised his concerns about the sustainability of the project. "It cost £23,000 for one area for two weeks. This will be seven areas over seven weeks for summer, then a further six weeks for the rest of the school year. The figures don’t seem to add up.”

Gary Daniels, community resources team leader, said: “We have taken into account the size and I have worked with facilities and education and £400,000 is the budget I’m working to.

“The more meals we deliver, the cheaper it actually becomes. I’m confident we can deliver it to cost.”

The scheme will be run across all seven areas of Fife, from a mixture of schools and community centres and an independent evaluation of its success will be carried out once it has concluded.