The cafes in Bath offering free meals to children to help with the cost of living crisis

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A group of cafes across Bath are offering children free meals to help parents cope with the cost of living crisis.

The owners of three sites in the city are all providing 'angel cake meals' to any family that asks.

It comes as rising energy, food and fuel bills put pressures on many households' budgets.

Jon Ison, who co-owns independent businesses including the Widcombe Deli, said they have decided to run the scheme 'indefinitely' and hopes it will help families through the half term holidays.

He said: "If you've got children and you're struggling to feed them and you'd like to bring them in for meal, just come in, ask for an 'angel cake meal' and the child gets what he wants."

The scheme has been run before, but as the challenges many parents are facing grow, Jon wants to reassure families.

He said: "With everything that's going on at the moment, the much publicised cost of living crisis, we decided to reinvigorate [angel cake meals] and extend it indefinitely in all three shops."

One of the cafes offering free food to children in Bath

Jon said his motivation for running the selfless scheme partly comes from his late father.

"There's a good line that my late dad used to use, which is one I think is worth repeating," Jon explained.

"He said, 'the most privileged position you can be in in life is to be in a position to help other people.'"

Customers at the cafe have welcomed the idea and said they appreciate the owners running the scheme during the half term holidays.

But some food campaigners say that Jon's project should not be necessary in the UK, when the government could pay for schools to feed children instead.

Widcombe Deli in Bath is one of the three cafes providing free food for children 'indefinitely'

Zoe McIntyre, who is a 'Feed the Future' campaigner, said: "There are kinda extra things that local authorities are doing but it's a real postcode lottery, so you might find that in your local authority there is support, but in the next one there won't be.

"So, we essentially think that helping to support the children who are missing out is really important and extending free school meals is the first kind of call of action for that, so [parents] can access these schemes during the holidays."