Morrisons, with stores in King's Lynn and Fakenham, provides thousands of lunchboxes for children in half term week

Supermarket giant Morrisons has joined the national effort to make sure no child goes without an adequate meal this half term by providing thousands of lunchboxes.

The retailer was also one of the businesses which supplied food for an initiative on Sunday which saw members of the public and community groups join forces to provide food parcels at the North Lynn Discovery Centre in an effort to ensure some of the town's poorest children don't go hungry during the school break.

The initiative was organised in response to last week's Commons vote in which Conservative MPs voted against a proposal to extend free school meal provision in the holidays until next Easter.

Morrisons colleagues in its 498 stores will prepare 30 lunch boxes in each of their stores this half-term. That amounts to 14,940 lunches daily with packaging donated by distribution company Bunzl. It is also encouraging customers to buy pre-packed bags of groceries to feed young people.

The lunchboxes will be distributed daily by each store to local food banks and schools so they can get them to school children in need. The lunch box includes a freshly made sandwich, a piece of fruit and a Soreen snack pack.

Morrisons, which has stores in Lynn and Fakenham, will also offer customers the option to support the effort by buying their own ‘Pick Up Packs’, which will also be distributed to young people.

The packs cost between £1 and £5 and contain a nutritionally balanced mix of food products that have been requested by the local food banks and schools according to their needs. The pre-packed parcels are available at the front of all Morrisons stores and are paid for at the checkout. The pack is then put aside for delivery to those in need.

Rebecca Singleton, customer and community director at Morrisons, said: “We want to do our bit to ensure that as many school children as possible can eat good, nutritious food while they are out of school. We will be delighted if customers are also able to donate food in our stores to help fight holiday hunger.”

For more information visit www.morrisons.co.uk