A HALF-TERM project has been offering free food and fun activities for children and families in need.

The project, called Harwich Holiday Fun, was run by Firstsite at the Harwich Arts and Heritage Centre, in Main Road, Dovercourt, from Monday to Thursday.

Although the idea behind Harwich Holiday Fun was to provide food for families who struggle to feed their children during the half-term break, it also had art and sport activities throughout the day for everybody’s entertainment.

The project offered free, hot and nutritious lunches for families who receive free school meals during term time and could present a voucher.

Otherwise, lunches cost £2 for children and £3 for adults.

Frances Jones, project co-ordinator, said all food was cooked from fresh and it was quality food, such as bolognese, jacket potatoes, chicken supreme and many other delicious deals.

The project was aimed for children aged four and 11 but everybody was welcomed.

She said: “The project’s primary aim is to offer meals for people to enable them to feed their children during the half-term.

“It is vital for some families.”

The project has been running in Colchester for two years, but has only received funding for Harwich this summer.

She said the six-week long project in August was a total success and between 35 and 40 people kept coming back and received the meal they needed.

She explained there was a mother with nine children, for whom it was very hard to feed nine mouths every day.

Mrs Jones said: “The project in Harwich was open for 30 people for whom we had to cater every day, but I would never turn anyone away.

“We had a sport and art session as well.

“Some people just came in for lunch and some stayed for the whole day.

“We had art activities for all ages and for mums and dads to join in, and each day there was something different.

“We had a resident artist to oversee these activities.”

Activities included sport from 10.30am to 11.30am every day, and art sessions such as making waves from textiles to writing a memory journal.

Mrs Jones added: “We appreciate we are a small community here in Harwich, so if something is not working, we will change it.”

For more information, visit bit.ly/2Wl6vQF.