All children and young people in your school community are invited to join in the fantastic activities FEAST has to offer, with funded places and a healthy meal for children and young people receiving benefits-related free school meals.
FEAST activities enable children to socialise, learn new skills and stay active and fed over the school holidays.
Each school will be asked to identify and send eligible families a voucher via a free platform called HolidayActivities. Families then redeem and make their bookings on HolidayActivities.
We would be very grateful if you can help promote the FEAST programme through any updates you share with your school community.
Schools can also get involved in the FEAST programme in a number of ways – as an activity provider, a host venue or their kitchen facilities can be used to supply food to other providers.
There are also video workshops and downloadable activities that all families can enjoy – whether it’s the holidays or not!
The FEAST programme is provided by North Yorkshire Together, commissioned by North Yorkshire Council and funded by the Department for Education.
Frequently Asked Questions
Eligibility
FEAST is all about food, entertainment, activities, sport and being together. Children and young people in North Yorkshire who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals receive vouchers for fully-funded places at our activities, where each day they’ll also get a free hot meal or packed lunch. There are loads of activities to get involved in!
FEAST is North Yorkshire’s Holiday Activities with Food programme, which is a Department for Education designed programme specifically to combat food poverty during the Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays.
Children and young people receiving benefits-related free school meals are automatically eligible for funded places at FEAST activities.
All children and young people from reception to year 11 (inclusive) who receive benefits-related free school meals are eligible for FEAST.
Schools can also make a small number of additional children eligible by exception if they face significant financial and/or other disadvantage (see below).
As defined by the Department for Education, FEAST is primarily for children and young people who receive benefits-related free school meals.
However, your school can also make a small number of additional children and young people eligible by exception if they face significant financial and/or other disadvantage.
We have to comply to rules from the DfE regarding how much of our funding can be spent on those made eligible by exception, so we must ask that you aim not to increase your total number of eligible children/young people by more than 15%.
When making your ‘eligible by exception’ choices, please bear in mind that FEAST is first and foremost a food poverty initiative. There are far more children in North Yorkshire that we would like to make eligible than we have funding for.
For example, a child/young person with SEND may face disadvantage, but this does not necessarily mean their family would struggle with food poverty over the holiday period.
Your approach to allocating your ‘eligible by exception’ vouchers may change over time in relation to your cohort’s needs. There is no requirement to re-issue vouchers to ‘eligible by exception’ children/young people who have received vouchers historically, and we encourage you to review your ‘eligible by exception’ selection before each holiday period.
‘Eligible by exception’ children/young people that you issued a voucher to last holiday will automatically be selected to receive one for the following holiday period. You can add or remove children/young people from this selection, before pressing the ‘Assign Voucher’ button. You need to press this to confirm your selection.
Whether or not a child/young person is issued a FEAST voucher by your school is ultimately your decision. You may have parents/carers approach you asking for a voucher, either through their own initiative or having been redirected by North Yorkshire Together or a FEAST activity provider. Thank you for supporting them to understand the eligibility criteria and how you have applied these if you decide not to issue vouchers to them.
Issuing your FEAST vouchers
Each school is individually responsible for allocating FEAST vouchers to eligible children and young people via HolidayActivities. You issue these through HolidayActivities, a platform that is completely free for schools and parents/guardians alike.
If your school has issued a voucher and this has not been received, please ask the recipient to check their junk mail folders. In the event that it hasn’t been received, please contact support@holidayactivities.com for help.
If receiving an email or text is not accessible to a parent/guardian, please provide them with their voucher in another way (e.g. over the phone, or by printing this letter template with their 16-digit voucher number on it). Thank you for using the method that best suits the parent/guardian.
You can find their 16-digit voucher number in HolidayActivities by following these simple steps.
Please note: you can only view UNCLAIMED vouchers. If the voucher has already been claimed, please ask the parents to log into their account at app.holidayactivities.com in the same way they did when they claimed the voucher.
HolidayActivities is a dedicated online platform built to run the Holiday Activities and Food programme for local authorities across the UK.
90% of North Yorkshire schools already use Wonde, the parent company of HolidayActivities, and your usage of HolidayActivities will be completely free to your school*. HolidayActivities have a very helpful support team who are highly experienced in onboarding the system in schools across the country.
You need to activate HolidayActivities in order to distribute vouchers to eligible families directly via HolidayActivities. Parents will then book FEAST activities and manage their bookings via a personal log in to the HolidayActivities platform.
Contact support@holidayactivities.com to get set-up on HolidayActivities or call 01638 438311.
*If you are new to Wonde, at the end of a trial period, you may be offered a paid-for version of the service, but there is no requirement of you to accept this or participate in a paid-for version of Wonde in order to use HolidayActivities to manage allocating your FEAST vouchers.
If your school has already logged into a HolidayActivities account and ordered vouchers in a previous holiday, you will receive an email inviting you to automatically issue your vouchers for the upcoming holiday.
Follow the link in the email from HolidayActivities and when instructed, select ‘confirm’ to enable your FEAST vouchers to be automatically issued.
Please note that vouchers won’t be issued to parents/carers immediately. North Yorkshire Together sets a date with HolidayActivities for all vouchers to be issued at the same time (sex weeks before the school holidays). To help ensure all families receive their voucher and can book a place at the same time, we encourage all schools to complete their voucher activation / ordering process as soon as possible.
*IMPORTANT: The automatic allocation process can only identify and allocate vouchers to those who are eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals (using your school’s MIS).
Any young people you wish to make eligible by exception, you must log onto HolidayActivities and do this manually as soon as possible. HolidayActivities have a guide on how to add additional students.
If your school has not ordered vouchers from HolidayActivities before, you’ll need to set this up. The process is quick and simple. Contact support@holidayactivities.com for assistance or call 01638 438311.
If receiving an email or text is not accessible to a parent/guardian, please provide them with their voucher in another way (e.g. over the phone, or by printing this letter template with their 16-digit voucher number on it). Thank you for using the method that best suits the parent/guardian.
You can find their 16-digit voucher number in HolidayActivities by following these simple steps.
Please note: you can only view UNCLAIMED vouchers. If the voucher has already been claimed, please ask the parents to log into their account at app.holidayactivities.com in the same way they did when they claimed the voucher.
Yes, schools using the automatic allocation process in HolidayActivities can only identify and allocate vouchers to those who are eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals (using your school’s MIS). Any young people you wish to make eligible by exception, you must log onto HolidayActivities and do this manually.
Information about eligibility is available in these FAQs (see ‘Who is eligible for a free FEAST place?’). HolidayActivities has a guide on how to add additional students.
If the child/young person attends your school, you, the school, can issue them a voucher if they are eligible (see eligibility criteria above, including information about who can be ‘eligible by exception’ and going over the recommended 15% additional allowance if required).
You can allocate vouchers to additional children/young people even after your original vouchers have been disseminated.
If the child/young person does not attend your school, you can:
- Speak to the family and ask them to contact their school to request the voucher
- If you don’t have a relationship with the family, speak to the school directly to request the voucher on the child’s behalf
- If you aren’t able to contact the school, or they can’t help, contact hello@northyorkshire.co.uk
If they have simply lost or not received their voucher, please see the above FAQ ‘What if someone has lost their FEAST voucher’
If a parent/guardian has been issued a voucher and lost or not received it, they are asked to come to you as their school to receive a new copy.
There are instructions here of how to view a child/young person’s voucher via your HolidayActivities school account here.
Thank you for providing the parent/guardian with the voucher in whatever way is best for them.
You can write it down, tell it to them over the phone, email it to them, or place it directly in this template letter that tells them more about FEAST. There is no way to reissue the voucher directly via HolidayActivities.
Please note, schools can only see vouchers of children/young people that have not already been claimed. If a parent/guardian requests their voucher, and you see that it has already been claimed, please ask them to log into their account at app.holidayactivities.com, in the same way they did when they claimed the voucher (e.g. via email or social log in).
You may also wish to direct the parent/guardian listed as the main contact on your MIS to search their emails or texts for ‘HolidayActivities’ to see if it is in their inbox or junk email folder.
Most bookings are made via HolidayActivities. Once a parent/guardian has claimed their voucher by clicking on the link in the email/text they received, they do not need the 16-digit voucher again to make a booking, as it will be automatically attached to their account.
However, they will need the 16-digit voucher if making a booking over the phone/email or in person due to access requirements.
Please contact hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk with details of the child you would like to take part.
Contact HolidayActivities.
Please do not issue duplicate vouchers as this is confusing for parents/carers, gives some families double the amount of credits as others, and incurs additional and unnecessary cost to the programme, reducing the funding available to deliver activities and food to those who need it most.
The main causes of duplicate vouchers are when children / young people:
- attend multiple settings – they should only receive a voucher from their main setting
- are still being listed at a primary school when in Year 7) – they should only receive a voucher from their main setting
- attend a federated school – the federation should work closely to ensure children only receive one voucher
- do not attend school – FEAST issues vouchers to eligible children / young people that we are aware of, however if you have eligible young people on your school roll who do not attend, please issue their voucher and we will not any duplication and remove them from future vouchers we issue.
No. Vouchers should be issued by the main setting that a child/young person attends. This is to remove the potential of one child/young person receiving more than one voucher.
If you are concerned that children/young people who attend your school as a guest learner, or on a temporary basis, will not get a FEAST voucher from their main setting, please contact the setting to discuss this.
In general, each school issues their own vouchers. However, we appreciate that some schools in North Yorkshire share administrative teams and/or have combined school rolls. In these circumstances, we ask that you work closely to ensure that eligible children are only issued a FEAST voucher via one school. Duplicative vouchers cause confusion for families and incurs unnecessary cost to the programme.
Most schools connect their Management Information System (MIS) to HolidayActivities, to automatically identify children on benefits-related Free School Meals as eligible for a FEAST voucher.
If you have connected your MIS to HolidayActivities, and a child / young person who no longer attends your school is listed as due to receive a FEAST voucher, you should navigate to your MIS and mark the child/young person as no longer attending your school. This will remove them from HolidayActivities.
If you are one of the few schools that uploads the data of your eligible children / young people in a .CSV file to HolidayActivities, you will need to remove the child / young person that no longer attends your school from your .CSV file, and reupload it.
We ask that you review your data each holiday period, as incorrectly issued vouchers cause confusion for families and incur unnecessary cost to the programme.
In general, HolidayActivities pulls directly from your Management Information System, so in the first instance you will want to review the data on your MIS.
However, if you choose to upload your children and young people’s data to HolidayActivities via a CSV file, there is a chance you could upload the same children and young people that are also pulled from your MIS.
If this happens, HolidayActivities will flag that you have potential duplicates between your CSV file and the children on HolidayActivities (from your MIS).
If this happens, you should edit your CSV file to remove any children who are already shown in HolidayActivities, and check there are no duplicate listings within the file.
Booking onto activities
Funded FEAST places are booked and managed through an online platform called HolidayActivities. Here’s how it works:
- If eligible, parents/carers will receive an email or text message from HolidayActivities.com – please click on the link to view your voucher.
- Please note: If parents/carers have more than one child, they will receive multiple vouchers via email or text message. Follow all 8 steps listed here for the first child. For the next child(ren), click the link in the text/email sent to them, and it will add them to the account already set up.
- If parents/carers have not used HolidayActivities before, they’ll need to create an account. This can be done easily by providing their email address, or clicking to log in via Apple or Google. If they sign up via email, they will not have a password. They will be emailed a unique link each time they go to log in.
- When signing up, they’ll be asked to enter their name, email and phone number. Then click ‘save details’.
- The HolidayActivities voucher that they were emailed will be linked to their account and show the available credits they have to use. They can then click on the arrow to see the available activities.
- They will be asked to add the child’s age, this is to ensure they only see activities suitable to their child’s age group.
- They can now browse all available activities. Click ‘View activity’ to see photos, available dates and read a short description.
- When they’re ready to book, click on the ‘Select date’ button.
- Complete the parent details, child details and a second emergency contact. These details will be remembered to make future bookings easier. Confirm they have read and understood the terms and conditions. Once they select Complete booking, they’ll receive a confirmation email notifying them that their booking is either confirmed or awaiting approval.
- They can now return to the activity and book more dates for their child, return to their vouchers or manage and cancel their bookings.
Note: If a parent/guardian did not receive their voucher via email or text (e.g. it was written down for them due to accessibility reasons), they can go to app.holidayactivities.com to log in or sign up and manually connect their voucher to their account. They can also use the information on our Families FAQ about how to book activities without using the internet.
If parents/carers have any issues in creating an account, making a booking or managing their booking, please ask them to contact the HolidayActivities team on support@holidayactivities.com
Please note, the HolidayActivities team are not who is delivering the activity and therefore cannot provide more information about the activities, or accept a booking (if it is pending).
Any parent/guardian asking to be made eligible will be redirected to their school. Please do not redirect enquiries regarding eligibility to North Yorkshire Together: you as a school make the decision.
Schools should allocated a voucher to any pupil who has previously received one for FEAST by North Yorkshire Together, if they are still eligible under the eligibility criteria.
Parents/guardians will receive a voucher for each child, sent by schools individually via an email or text through HolidayActivties – an online platform.
To make a booking, parents/guardians click the link provided in any voucher received – this will take them to the HolidayActivities platform. Once there, you’ll be invited to sign up for, or log in to, your account. Follow the instructions to set up this account, and the first voucher will be added automatically.
Then parents/guardians return to their email and click the voucher link(s) in any other emails they have received from HolidayActivities. Doing so will add these vouchers to the account they have already created.
For help with your account or making and managing your booking on HolidayActivities, email support@holidayactivities.com or call 01638 438311.
If a parent/guardian isn’t able to use the online platform HolidayActivities to make a booking, they should contact the activity provider directly.
We have a printable version of our activity finder, using the provider contact details listed. This document also contains instructions for parents/guardians on how to make their booking offline.
Note that families are requested to give the activity provider their 16-digit HolidayActivities voucher number in order to book a free place. To assist, we have created a letter template in which you can paste their 16-digit voucher number, then print and give this to the family. You can also give this to them in an email, over the phone etc. Thank you for using the method that best suits the parent/guardian.
You can find their 16-digit voucher number in HolidayActivities by following these simple steps.
Please note: you can only view UNCLAIMED vouchers. If the voucher has already been claimed, please ask the parents to log into their account at app.holidayactivities.com in the same way they did when they claimed the voucher.
FEAST is open to all children and young people across North Yorkshire, and many of our providers offer paid places alongside their funded FEAST places.
Take a look at the holiday activities available in our activity finder page or on own downloadable listings (coming soon for Christmas). To book a paid place, please contact the provider directly via the contact details supplied in their listing.
The best way is to support them in person, at a device, to search in their inbox for messages from HolidayActivities. You want to find the email with their voucher, click the link and redeem it. You can then support them to make their bookings.
To help, we have this step-by-step guide on how to redeem your FEAST voucher and book free activities. You can also contact support@holidayactivities.com if you have any issues in creating an account, making a booking or managing a booking.
If the person you’re supporting isn’t able to get online to view activities, redeem their voucher or make a booking, see our FAQ above on ‘How do families book if they can’t get online?’
If it isn’t possible for the person you’re helping to claim the voucher and make a booking themself, it is possible for anyone who supports them to do it for them, as long as they have permission.
Accessibility, inclusivity and transport
You can translate this website by clicking the ‘translate this site’ button in the bottom left of every screen.
On HolidayActivities, where you can view and book FEAST activities, there is a Recite Me toolbar which will translate the whole site into over 100 languages, 65 of which can be read aloud using text-to-speech.
See our FAQ above on ‘How can I make the HolidayActivities website easier to use?’ for more information.
You can also download translated information about FEAST in some specific languages using the links below.
HolidayActivities has the Recite Me accessibility toolbar on its website, which can help people access and interact with the platform more easily. It offers features like audio readers, translation, and options to customise the font, colour and display so that visitors can view and use the site in a way that works best for them.
Recite Me works across all different devices and browsers, and you don’t need to download anything to use it.
Watch our video for a quick guide on how to use the Recite Me toolbar on HolidayActivities. Below you will find a written guide to using all the features.
Please note that you must be logged in to your HolidayActivities account to turn on the Recite Me toolbar.
Once you’re logged in, choose the ‘Accessibility Tools’ button in the top right of your account page.
Then, along the top of the page, there will be a selection of coloured icons to choose from. Here is a guide to what these are and how they can help your experience on the site.
Text-to-Speech
Recite Me’s text-to-speech feature reads text aloud.
- Back: Rewind to the previous paragraph of text.
- Play: Click the Play button to read the text aloud.
- Forward: Skip forward to the next paragraph of text.
- Download Audio: Highlight a section of text and download it as an audio file to listen to offline.
Note that to turn off the automatic autoplay, you should go to ‘Settings’ and deselect the ‘autoplay’ option.
Translation
The ‘translation’ button translates the entire content of the HolidayActivities website at the click of a button. It can translate into over 100 languages, and 65 of these can be read aloud using text-to-speech.
- Language: Translate text into a different language.
- Play: Click the play button to read translated text aloud.
Text Styling and Customisation
The Recite Me ‘text styling’ buttons allow you to change the way the HolidayActivities website looks, just for you. You can customise the website’s colour scheme as well as the text, font style, size, colour, and spacing.
- Decrease: This will decrease the text size.
- Text options: Choose from a range of fonts and customise line height, spacing and size.
- Focus text: Guide the eyes to the most informative parts of words
- Increase: This will increase the text size.
- Colour: Customise the colour palette of a website, including the background, text and link colours.
Focus Tools
While reading it can sometimes be hard to focus on one area. To simplify how the HolidayActivities site appears, the Recite Me toolbar provides five main tools; ruler, screen mask, text-only mode, margins, and cursor options.
- Ruler: Use the reading ruler to stay focused on lines of content.
- Cursor Options: Customise the cursor size and colour to help focus on page location.
- Screen Mask: Filter out unnecessary distractions to focus on what you want to read.
- Text-Only Mode: Removes all images, video and design leaving only text and links.
- Margins: Repositions text on the screen to aid ease of reading, when in text-only mode
Reading Aids
Reading online can be a challenge. To help, the Recite Me toolbar has two useful tools:; a magnifier and a dictionary.
- Dictionary: See a definition for a word on the page you highlight
- Magnifier: Hover over a section of the website to temporarily zoom in on a particular part.
Settings
Edit the user settings of the Recite Me toolbar, including reading speed and voice type, reset the toolbar to factory defaults, and explore in-depth how to use it.
- Settings: Adjust your Recite Me Toolbar settings.
- Reset: This will restore the default settings.
- User Guide: This will give you an overview of the Recite Me Toolbar features.
Yes. Some of the activities we offer are specifically for SEND children, and many others are inclusive for those children.
Find out what’s on in your area using our activity finder, or by logging onto HolidayActivities, and use the search filters to see which are suitable for your child. If you have any questions, please contact the provider directly using the details in their listing.
There’s lots happening across the county and we hope families can find an activity near to where they live.
Websites like Traveline and Google Maps can help to plan journeys by car, public transport or walking.
If there are no activities close to you, and you don’t have access to transport, you can register to request assistance with transport.
We also have a range of Video Workshops and Downloadable Activities.
If a child or young person can’t make it to any events or activities in person, they can check out our video workshops. There are also lots of activities and recipes in our FEAST booklet to help families stay active and creative at home.
Other
North Yorkshire Council has commissioned North Yorkshire Together, a partnership between Rural Arts, North Yorkshire Sport and North Yorkshire Youth, to coordinate the programme which is being branded as FEAST.
The Department for Education has given North Yorkshire Council funding to coordinate FEAST.
After every holiday period, we send every school a link to our School Feedback Form. Click here to complete the current holiday period’s feedback form. We also email every school to invite them to join a School Feedback Session online. Please contact hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk to find out more.
You can contact us by email at hello@northyorkshiretogether.co.uk. If you have a question about a specific activity or provider please contact them direct using the information on their listing.
In an emergency, you should call 999.
Every provider taking part in FEAST has provided North Yorkshire Together with a copy of their safeguarding policy and insurance details, and has completed our Safeguarding Checklist.
If you have any concerns about the safety or welfare of a young person taking part in FEAST, you should telephone 0300 131 2 131 or email children&families@northyorks.gov.uk. More information can be found at https://www.safeguardingchildren.co.uk/about-us/worried-about-a-child/
No, the FEAST programme does not distribute any vouchers with monetary value, or cash, credit, bank transfers etc.
The Department for Education funding for the FEAST programme is only allowed to be spent providing eligible children with fun and enriching activities over the school holidays, where free food is also distributed.
If you need financial support, please see the below funds to see if you are eligible or get in touch with North Yorkshire Council or the Citizens Advice Bureau.
https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/household-support-fund
You can find information about support schemes and organisations which may be able to help on the North Yorkshire Council cost of living support page.
The Household Support Fund was set up by the Government to help people who are struggling with the increase in living costs and feeling the financial pressure of paying their bills. You’ll find more information about the Household Support Fund in North Yorkshire at the Household Support Fund page.
If you’re not eligible for the Household Support Fund but you are struggling to pay for food, energy and other essentials you may be able to get other financial support through schemes such as the North Yorkshire Local Assistance Fund (NYLAF) and a fund managed by North Yorkshire Citizens Advice and Law Centre that helps people struggling to pay their energy bills.
The North Yorkshire Council cost of living support page also contains advice on money, debt, benefit entitlement, free school meals and childcare costs as well as information about free Wi-Fi, digital support, travel and transport. The page also has information about energy saving, foodbanks and community-based support including Warm Welcome Spaces and local schemes depending on where you live.
North Yorkshire Citizen’s Advice and Law Centre provide free, confidential and impartial advice to help people find a way forward with whatever problems they face, including money and benefits. You can get advice in person, over the phone, on a web chat or by email by contacting North Yorkshire Citizen’s Advice and Law Centre direct.