Waitrose presented the Okehampton Community and Recreation Association (OCRA) with a cheque for hundreds of pounds last week to fund the organisation’s holiday activities.

Ian Blythe, general manager of OCRA, received the cheque for £600 which will go towards OCRA’s Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) - a national scheme to offer holiday activities and meals to children who receive free school meals.

Jude Swift, the Waitrose community champion at Okehampton, said: ‘We are particularly pleased to have been able to do so much this summer to support local families by giving holiday clubs a cash boost.

‘All of these organisations are running holiday clubs with free places or providing activities for children and young people during the school holidays. With so much additional pressure on family finances right now, it’s hard for many to keep their youngsters occupied. For some, it’s hard to even keep them fed.

‘OCRA are supporting hundreds of children this summer, and we are proud to be a small part of that.’

The HAF scheme has proven to be particularly successful. Already, the original 72 HAF places for the sport and art activities have been filled and the extra 38 places funded by Waitrose have also sold out for sport and art activities.

So far this summer, OCRA has given away 15 family bike hire passes with food voucher for Adventure Okehampton, nine Virtual Reality tickets along with a £20 food voucher and purchased 32 family swim passes for Parklands Leisure Centre.

Ian Blythe, general manager of OCRA, said: ‘We are one of the few such schemes in the area.With the Waitrose money we can put more spaces on the scheme - we have added some places for Ukrainian refugees and those who are not necessarily eligible for the scheme to include friends of children who won’t come without them and young carers.

‘This benefits families who are really feeling the pinch.’

Over the past two weeks OCRA has delivered the HAF scheme to 200 Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust students who attended sessions at Bridgerule and North Tawton schools and has referred others to the Argyle Community Trust sessions in Okehampton, Holsworthy and Tavistock.

OCRA has also supported Significant Seams, Room 13, Primary Sports, Princetown Youth Club, Argyll in the Community and Saints South West.

The HAF scheme is a voluntary initiative which provides for children from reception to Year 11 who receive benefits-related free school meals and is available to any child whose parents are in receipt of one of the qualifying benefits.

The holiday clubs are available to any child even if they do not receive free school meals although their parents are then expected to pay for their child to attend the sessions.