Marcus Rashford's free school meals campaign has shone a light on child hunger in the UK.

But before the footballer turned activist, and long before the pandemic began, educator Janet Hayward OBE had devised a plan to help end food poverty in Barry.

Now, after two years of tweaking and recently ramping up the effort during COVID, the Big Bocs Bwyd initiative has emerged as a widely relied upon food source for struggling families in the town.

Members of the community are invited to visit the two shipping containers filled with food and asked to pay what they can for the items they pick up.

Everyone involved says it has been a remarkable success. They urge other communities to follow suit.

How it started

"If you have a hungry child then they can't really do much in the way of learning.," Janet tells Nub News.

Barry's very own educational pioneer, Janet was nominated for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize in 2015, which is widely referred to as the Nobel Prize for teaching.

Among other things, she is currently interim executive headteacher at Cadoxton and Oak Field Primary Schools.

"In 2017, I spoke with a headteacher in Leeds who had done lots of work with child hunger. He was working to divert food that was going to go to waste in supermarkets into his school.

"in Cadoxton, we had lots of children coming in hungry and we found very quickly that we could get food from our local supermarkets and that we could run a FairShare shop out of our community centre.

"It's great because not only are you helping families but you're also helping to save the environment."

FairShare is the UK's national network of charitable food redistributors, made up of 18 independent organisations.

It takes surplus food from across the food industry and delivers it to almost 11,000 frontline charities and community groups.

The shop operates on a "Pay What You Feel Basis", the funds gathered from which cover the fee paid to FairShare and operational costs like electricity.

"During 2018, the shop became more and more successful to the point where we started to worry about where we were going to store the food," continues Janet.

"So we decided we would convert a shipping container and move the shop into there. We managed to fundraise through all sorts of ways and opened it on 5 April 2020 and arranged another one for Oak Field school too."

"But in March 2020 the world change a bit, and we had even more hungry people in the community. So, we started to prepare and deliver food packages for our families and those from other schools.

"We were preparing 290 food packages a week."

When the schools initially closed, the shops in the containers were forced to close down.

But since the first lockdown ended, the shops have been open five days a week while classes were running and four days a week during the various lockdowns.

The boxes

According to a UNICEF report, 10% of children in the UK are living with severe food insecurity

In Wales, this has been partially alleviated by the provision of free school meals.

When lockdown struck, the Welsh Government offered to continue the scheme but through providing each child £19.50 per week instead - as a voucher, direct payment or a food parcel.

Although this is helpful, Janet says some children and families still go hungry.

"I'm pleased I'm a headteacher in Wales not in England, but having said that we've lived through years of austerity and people are struggling to get by.

"I think it's fair to say the vouchers are a massive help, but what we're able to do through FairShare is a huge bonus on top, especially around Christmastime."

As Janet is keen to emphasise, there is a huge team behind Big Bocs Bwyd comprised of school staff, parents and donors.

A number of parents from Oak Field and Ysgol Gwaun Y Nant help to run the Big Bocs Bwyd, exemplifying how the scheme has brought the community together.

Nicole Cox-Schembri is a teacher at Oak Field Primary, one of the schools involved in the initiative.

She has devoted a remarkable amount of time to the scheme because she has seen its worth first-hand.

"You can see when a child has had a nutritious meal," she says. "They're more awake and they're more engaged. If they haven't had a good meal they're tired, they're hunched over and they can't concentrate. So this makes a huge difference.

"There's no plan whatsoever to end after COVID. We want this to go on forever."

Behind the scenes

The food is sourced from a number of providers besides FairShare.

Barry shops (including Lidl, The Big Fresh Catering Company and a local pharmacy) and the local construction company Morgan Sindall have all contributed.

At present, donations from Morrisons make up roughly 50% of the items stocked at the Oak Field Big Box.

Pam is a community coordinator at the Morrisons in Barry. She explains the donation process:

"People come in and pick up the 'Bags of Kindness' at the entrance which I fill with products designed for good causes - toiletries for the homeless, food for Big Bocs etc.

"Then they pay for them and drop them off in the trolley. I then separate the goods between the causes and distribute them.

"It's the most rewarding job in the world. These people aren't lazy or exploiting the system, they're just human beings who need a bit of a boost."

The Impact

Not only does the initiative reduce waste and feed families, but it also helps those families connect with food and cooking, Nicole explains.

"Some of the parents can't really believe what we're doing. It means that they can actually cook their families nutritious meals.

"Pam makes a huge effort to supply food that people use for recipes rather than ready meals or anything like that.

"Children and parents are now thinking more about food and educating each other on how to cook nutritious meal, so it's really positive in that sense too."

At the Oak Field Big Bocs, we spoke to a mother named Laura on how the service has changed her life.

"It's fab for me because I only get my money every four weeks," she says. "So, when money gets a bit tight towards the end of the month I can come here and feed my daughter.

"I think it's fantastic, I do. It's made a huge difference for me. It was a bit difficult at times before.

"If we've only got a little bit of food in the house and I have to send her to school tired, it feels awful. So this has made a huge difference for her learning."

Optimists among us think that the pandemic will be over in just a few short months.

But whenever that time does eventually come, Janet says the project will live on.

"There's a huge community spirit in Barry and that community will keep it going. It's a community I'm really proud to serve."