Over 70 places offering free food or meals for kids this half term including Morrisons and Co-op

SUPERMARKETS, restaurants, cafe's and councils across the UK are all stepping up to help provide free meals this half term.

The UK government rejected pleas to extends free schools meals over the break, despite campaigning led by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford.

But now, Britain's businesses are plugging the gap and supporting vulnerable families by offering free food.

McDonald's led the charge by donating funding to provide a million meals to families in need through charity FareShareUK.

Now, Morrisons supermarkets have joined the national effort, donating 15,000 lunchboxes across the the UK.

Morrisons staff will prepare 30 lunch boxes in each of their 498 stores this half-term.

The lunchboxes will be distributed daily 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 is offering customers the option to support the effort by buying ‘Pick Up Packs’, which will 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 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.

The Co-op has also pledged to provide free school meal vouchers for more than 5,000 vulnerable children at schools in the Co-op Academies Trust.

Each eligible child will get a £20 voucher towards food over the October break.

The Co-op's CEO Steve Murrells also wrote an open letter urging the government to provide free school meal funding through half term.

Vietnamese chain Pho has pledged to give away 6,000 free meals for half term.

Starting at midday today, each restaurant will give out 50 meals a day with veggie fried rice and a piece of fresh fruit.

These lunches will be available at the front of restaurants for people who need them.

The Qoot chain of restaurants is also offering free school meals across its chain of restaurants in London, including by CHLOE and The Lebanese Bakery venues.

Kids can get a free main meal, side and drink before 1pm on presentation of benefits documents.

And the Big Smoke Brewery, which has pubs throughout Surbiton, Kingston, Hammersmith, Weybridge, Chichester and Wokingham is donating 1,000 free meals to families that need them. To order, email lunch@bigsmokebrew.co.uk.

Frozen food retailer, Iceland, isn't doing free school meals, but it is offering £1 bags of vegetables free to parents with a Healthy Start voucher. It also says it will be doing in-store promotions to help parents through half term.

Asda has also announced that it’s donating almost £100k to provide families with access to food during the school holidays.

The donation given to Asda’s dedicated Community Champions in 387 stores and can be spent on food for groups that are providing services to children during half term.

This is in addition to the Asda Foundation’s Healthy Holiday grants, which have been running for several years. These grants - which are worth up to £1,000 each - are designed to help charities and local groups provide healthy holiday activities, including nutritious meals and support services for mental health and wellbeing.

Local councils are also announcing measures to help struggling parents through the half-term break.

For instance, Greater Manchester is giving out over 1,000 vouchers entitling young people to a Co-op meal deal.

Meanwhile, Greenwich is distributing free meals via a mobile kitchen.

Make sure you check your local council websites for details of what is available near you,

Football clubs are also doing their bit to make sure children have access to food this week.

Manchester United football club is distributing 5,000 cooked meals to local school children as part of its partnership with Fairshare.

Luton Town is providing 250 meals per day, Pinchbeck United is offering both a breakfast in the morning and a hot meal in the afternoon and Chatham Town is offering free meals at the club or by delivery.

Hundreds of local business have also promised to give away free meals throughout the next week, with some pledging help in the Christmas holidays too.

To find somewhere near you offering half term meals there is a that shows all the businesses that have announced their plans.