A SCHOOL cafe pilot is being tested out in Dudley town centre in a bid to tackle holiday hunger.

Pupils from Jessons Primary School will take part in the scheme to ensure no child goes hungry over the upcoming Easter holidays.

Dudley Council is working with the school, The Friends of Grange Park and a number of local organisations to run the scheme for pupils from low income households during the two weeks holiday.

Eligible youngsters will be able to use tokens to get lunch in one of four participating cafes in Dudley town centre- Gather Café, The Coffee Shop, Lunch on the Run and Bake ‘n’ Butty.

The pilot will be assessed to see how such schemes can be run in the future to help low-income families over the holiday periods.

Local businesses and organisations such as The Rotary, KMB Shipping Group and Black Country T-Shirts have chipped in to support the project.

Martin Samuels, strategic director for people, said: "We are all too aware of the impact school holidays can have on food availability for youngsters from low income households.

"This pilot is designed to see how organisations and businesses in the local community can come together to help families who may be worried about managing food costs during the Easter holidays.”

Karen Paskin, Friends of Grange Park, said: "We have organised a number of local community events to bring people together and talk about issues faced by families living in the local area and food poverty is something that has been discussed many times.

"Opening up schools during holidays can be difficult so we decided to try this token scheme so that it would benefit families and businesses alike, whilst bringing people from a cross section of the local community together.”

21 per cent of children aged five to ten years in the Dudley borough live in low income households.