Unicef to feed children in UK for first time

17 December 2020

Unicef is helping to feed children in Plymouth as part of its first ever domestic emergency response.

The UN agency, responsible for providing humanitarian aid to children worldwide, is awarding grants to community projects as part of its Food Power for Generation Covid initiative.

A partnership of Devon charities have been given £24,000 to help feed 120 families this winter.

Anna Kettley, from Unicef, said it was about "plugging a gap".

Unicef said it was helping children in the UK for the first time because the pandemic has increased food poverty in Britain. It estimates there are children going hungry in a fifth of households.

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Jacob Rees-Mogg under fire for dismissing Unicef's UK grants as stunt

Commons leader criticised over comments about £25,000 pledge in south London

Simon Murphy
@murphy_simon
Thu 17 Dec 2020 19.10 GMTLast modified on Fri 18 Dec 2020 01.19 GMT

The Tory minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has come under fire for accusing Unicef of a “political stunt” after the UN agency stepped in to help feed deprived children in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Commons leader hit out at Unicef, which is responsible for providing humanitarian aid to children worldwide, after it launched its first domestic emergency response in the UK in its more than 70-year history.

As part of its programme of support that is set to distribute more than £700,000 to help fund projects for children and their families, the agency has pledged £25,000 to supply nearly 25,000 breakfasts in a south London borough over the Christmas holidays and February half-term.

Rees-Mogg characterised Unicef’s support as “playing politics” and claimed it should be “ashamed of itself”.

After Unicef’s support in the UK was raised in the Commons on Thursday by the Labour MP Zarah Sultana, who also took aim at Rees-Mogg’s personal wealth, the minister replied: “I think it’s a real scandal that Unicef should be playing politics in this way when it is meant to be looking after people in the poorest, the most deprived countries in the world, where people are starving, where there are famines and there are civil wars.

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