Strabane cafe helping low income families

A STRABANE cafe has started giving away free meals for kids every Friday during the summer holidays after government funding was cut for kids eligible for free school lunches.

The owners of Bistro 21, Micky and Barry McLaughlin said that the scheme, which was launched last week, has already been a great success with the cafe feeding over 50 children on its first day.

Families of 93,000 pupils who are entitled to free school meals across the North had previously received £27 per child per fortnight during the summer break. Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK where support with food costs for low-income families is not available through the summer holidays.

Mick told the Chronicle, “We’re very aware some people are getting it hard with the kids off school and no access to free school meals, so every Friday during summer we’re going to open from 12-4 doing free kids meals including a drink. We’re also doing adult hot lunch boxes at a discounted price. These do not have to be purchased in order to avail of the free kids’ meals.

“Just call in say hello and we will sort you out with whatever you need! We hope to keep this going right through the summer holidays and if any other businesses want to give us a hand to keep this going we will gladly accept.”

Mick added, “I have lived in Strabane my whole life and so has Barry. We wanted to give something back.”

Bistro 21 located on Main Street will be offering free kids’s meals on Fridays between 12pm and 4pm.

For more information on the scheme or to contact Bistro 21 you can visit them on their social media pages.