Applying to be a FEAST provider

FEAST is a well established programme, which has been running since 2021. The last 2 years (2024 – 2026), has seen single year funding agreements with limited lead in time. With the government agreeing that the Holiday and Activity and Food (HAF) programme will continue for a further 3 years, the FEAST team have used this as an opportunity for: 

• Reduces the administration. The North Yorkshire Together Approved Provider List, will keep your information together and reduce your administration as you only need to provide this once, with an annual review.
• Commissioning FEAST activities. The FEAST team understand the need across North Yorkshire, and coupled with a budget for activities and information on providers from previous years, we are shifting to us commissioning a service to deliver FEAST activities across North Yorkshire.
• Annual planning. This allows organisations (where they want to apply for the year), to understand what places they will be commissioned to deliver across Easter, Summer and/or Christmas holidays. With this, is a greater sense of security for providers, and could allow providers to use the funding to lever in match funding for half terms or community activity. Importantly, the information provided on the APL and the FEAST Delivery Proposal, will be kept for the year, meaning you only need to provide specific information ahead of the holiday. 
• Approved Provider List. This allow for a more joined up approach to funding for North Yorkshire Together.  

In assessing FEAST proposals, we need to balance a number of factors, including (but not limited to): our available budget, the number of children and young people in your area who receive benefits-related Free School Meals, your previous participant numbers (if applicable), the type of activity offered and the spread of provision we are offering across North Yorkshire.

In order to fairly distribute our monies, it is very important that you only apply for the holidays you can feasibly deliver in, bearing in mind the number of eligible children in that area, any previous delivery. 

Below are indicative budgets for each holiday period for each district: 

Craven: Easter: £12,000 | Summer: £37,500 | Christmas: £7,000
Hambleton: Easter: £27,000 | Summer: £94,000 | Christmas: £16,000
Harrogate: Easter: £40,000 | Summer: £131,000 | Christmas: £23,000
Richmondshire: Easter: £13,500 | Summer: £44,000 | Christmas: £8,000
Ryedale: Easter: £16,000 | Summer: £56,000 | Christmas: £9,000
Scarborough: Easter: £50,000 | Summer: £169,000 | Christmas: £30,000
Selby: Easter: £28000 | Summer: £94,000 | Christmas: £16,500

These are used as a guiding principle (rather than a rule) when the FEAST team are making their offers, and should be of use when organisations are setting their expectations around the scale of their proposals. 

Providers are advised that applications are expected to account for only a minority of the indicative budget per district.  

For example, it is unlikely that a single provider would receive £9,000 for delivery in Craven in Easter, as that would account for 75% of an area’s entire indicative budget for the holiday, and this would not enable a broad and diverse offer to families. 

For active providers, we will use previous delivery information, as we are aware that each opportunity will incur different costs depending on location, target participant group and type of activity being delivered.

For new Providers, we provide the following guidelines that relate to the average cost per head that has been achieved by delivery partners in recent years.

• Primary age: £16 per child per session (4 hours)
• Mixed age: £17.50 per child per session (4 hours)
• Secondary age: £20 per child per session (4 hours)

If you can deliver your programme for less than this amount, you should apply for this.

This programme has limited resources, and we want to enable as many young people as possible benefit from access to free holiday activities and food. Applications that we deem disproportionately expensive, in relation to similar other provision, will not be successful.

• The direct cost of providing the child’s place, e.g. staffing, facilities, resources (equipment, materials etc.)  This amount should not be any more than your usual costs. Where required we validate this against publicly available marketing and booking sites to ensure that providers are providing fair and equitable access. 
• The cost of providing nutritious meals and snacks 
• Administration costs associated with marketing and booking places for FEAST-eligible children, parental liaison and engagement, at a value of no more than 10% of your total grant application. 

You must apply via the online applications found above. There is currently a different process for active and new providers. 

Please note the application form will not allow you to save and resume. Each application form has a word document which allows you to draft your responses.  

North Yorkshire’s rural nature may present barriers to some families accessing provision. There is a separate transport from for families to us to access your activities. This can be found here.

You can use funding for transport for visits, travel to enrichment etc. We ask that you:

• consider activities that are accessible on foot
• are innovative in approaches – e.g., encourage, where relevant and possible, public transport, safe walking and cycle routes – including those led by project staff 
• consider community transport providers rather than commercial operations. More information is available from Go Local: http://www.golocal-northyorks.community/ 

No, this funding only covers the school Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays.

We suggest organisations link with other funders to cover half term holidays as well as other community sessions to ensure young people have access to activities all year round. 

The guidance on food provision is as follows:

All providers must provide at least 1 meal every four hours (breakfast, lunch, or an evening meal) and all food provided at FEAST activities (including snacks) must meet school food standards.

If a provider is open to both FEAST-funded and non-FEAST-funded places, it is vital that all the children attending are provided with an identical food offer and that FEAST funded children are treated equally. If children on non-FEAST-funded places are given the option to bring a packed lunch, then we expect the provider to ensure that children attending through FEAST have the same choice.

All food provided as part of the HAF programme must:

• comply with regulations on food preparation
• take into account allergies and dietary requirements (see the allergy guidance for schools in our food toolkit)
• take into account any religious or cultural requirements for food

Alternatively, for providers who provide meals on-site, they could consider making the same healthy food available to all children, but with an additional charge for those non-HAF funded places.

Support

North Yorkshire Together will support providers in providing food and healthy eating activities as part of the FEAST programme. Training will be available at the Provider Information Sessions, and you can also access the FEAST programme food toolkit at any time.

If you have any questions about the food provision requirements for FEAST, please contact providers@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk

The application process will be ongoing, with deadlines set for each holiday period. Currently these are currently: Easter – 2nd Feb, Summer – 22nd May, and for Christmas – 23rd October. This allows organisations to register their interest and allows the FEAST team and NYT partner organisations longer to work with them to get them ready for delivery.