asda cafe

Asda’s ‘Kids Eat for £1’ offer is available any time within store opening hours

Asda will feed kids for £1 this summer in store cafés across the country, any time of day within opening hours, seven days a week.

To help tackle ‘holiday hunger’ amid the cost of living crisis, the supermarket is giving children aged 16 and under a hot or cold meal for £1 with no minimum adult spend required.

Asda said customers were more worried than ever this year about being able to put enough food on the table during the school summer holidays.

“We know that families can find the summer holidays tough, and our customers are telling us that this year more than ever, they’re concerned about holiday hunger,” said a spokeswoman.

“With that in mind, we are so pleased to be able to offer children’s meals for just £1, with no minimum adult spend, to ensure that those who would normally rely on a school meals aren’t left without.”

Asda’s ‘Kids Eat for £1’ offer is available now in Asda cafés in Scotland and will start from 25 July in England and Wales, reflecting the later start to school holidays. It will run until 4 September across the UK.

Babies can also eat as part of the initiative, with Asda providing a free pouche of Ella’s Kitchen babyfood.

Stephanie Slater, founder and CEO of School Food Matters, a charity striving to improve children’s access to healthy food, said: “It’s brilliant that Asda has recognised that families will be struggling this summer.”

She said the government’s holiday activities and food programme was “only available to children receiving free school meals and too many low-income families fail to qualify, as the threshold of £7,400 earned income is set far too low”.

“That’s why we’re calling for urgent action to support the 800,000 children living in poverty without access to free school meals.”

Other initiatives by supermarkets to alleviate food poverty during the school holidays have included donating hundreds of thousands of meals to charities supporting children, in the case of Aldi.