Comic Relief and Sainsbury’s Holiday Activity and Food Programme

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Before You Begin...

The Comic Relief and Sainsbury's Holiday Activity Programme is offering awards of up to £15,000 to groups based in any of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester.

We please ask that you read the below information in full before applying.

Who Can Apply?
The Comic Relief and Sainsbury’s Holiday Activity and Food Programme welcomes applications from Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations based in any of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester.

For this programme, only formally registered organisations can apply. Constituted community groups that are not registered as a recognised not-for-profit organisation (for example a Charity, CIO, or CIC limited by guarantee) are not eligible for funding under this programme.

Applicant organisations must be based in one of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester and have an annual income of less than £500,000. Due to an expected high volume of applications, priority will be given to organisations with lower incomes, and to achieving a broad geographical spread across areas of need.

The programme aims to tackle food poverty by helping people access the balanced, nutritional and sustainable food they need, right now and in the future. The aim of the fund is to provide school children (up to Year 11) with improved access to summer holiday activity and food schemes.

How Much Can We Apply For?
Organisations can apply for grants of up to £15,000. Up to 10% of the grant can be allocated towards core organisational costs, including (but not limited to) rent, utilities and staff costs.

When is the activity expected to take place?
Projects must begin delivery in line with the start of the 2026 school summer holidays for the relevant borough and be completed by 11 September 2026, allowing time to wrap up delivery.

Funding can be allocated from 1 July 2026 for any preparation work required ahead of delivery.

Is there anything you can’t apply for?
The programme cannot fund:

Activities that have already taken place or been paid for
Contributions to major appeals
Activities that promote political or religious beliefs
Activity that should be provided by statutory services
Up to 10% of the grant may be used towards core organisational costs; however, ongoing organisational overheads beyond this are not eligible.

If you are unsure whether your activity is eligible, please contact the Forever Manchester Communities Team at awards@forevermanchester.com for advice.

What can you apply for?
The programme will prioritise applications from organisations that aim to:

Increase or improve access to holiday food and activity schemes for children with disabilities
Increase or improve access to holiday food and activity schemes for children experiencing food poverty
Deliver activity across the full six-weeks of the summer school holidays

Examples of activity the fund may support include:

Expansion of an existing summer holiday food and activity programme to enable more children to attend or to extend delivery
A new food and activity scheme where an organisation is well placed to engage children and deliver in time for the start of the 2026 summer holidays
New or improved approaches to supporting children with disabilities to access holiday food and activity provision

While applications must explain how funding will be used, organisations may adapt or redirect activity during delivery where needed, provided changes remain focused on the programme’s aims of supporting children experiencing food poverty and increasing access to holiday food and activity schemes.

Supporting Documents

For help and guidance on your groups supporting documents and to see what we require to be submitted alongside your application, please refer to our guidance which you can find here:

https://forevermanchester.com/supporting-information/

Deadline for Applications
We will close for applications at midday on Thursday 23rd April 2026. Any applications received after this time will not be considered. Please head to the main web page to access the application form.

How long will a decision take?
We aim to let you know the outcome of your application by early June 2026. Please do not plan to start any activity until after you hear if your application has been successful.

If you have any questions or have trouble completing your application, please contact us at awards@forevermanchester.com or phone 0161 214 0940.

*A reminder that due to the level of funding available, constituted community groups who are not registered as a recognised not-for-profit organisation such as a Charity/CIO/CIC ltd by Guarantee etc., are not eligible. We have lots of other funding programmes that run throughout the year, so please make sure you are signed up to our newsletter to hear when these open.

And Finally...

We recommend that you save your application by clicking on the "Save my progress and resume later" box at the top of the page. You will be prompted to enter a valid email address and choose a password. You can then come back to it and resume it at a later date if you need to.

You can navigate to different pages on this form by clicking on a page number on the top right hand corner or using the "Next" or "Previous" buttons at the end of each page.

After completing the form you will be given an opportunity at the end of the form to review your answers before submitting the application. You can also print a copy to retain for your records.

Once you've submitted your application you will receive a confirmation email containing the information you submitted on your application.

Start Your Application Below

Organisation Name and Address Details

Name of your organisation
Provide the name of your organisation as it appears on any governing documents

Provide the name of your organisation as it appears on any governing documents.

Organisation Address

Number and Street

This should be the address of the organisation. If the organisation doesn't have a independent location you can use the contact details of the primary contact.

Town/City

Postcode

Organisation Email

The telephone number and email address should be one at which the organisation is easily contacted, especially during office hours. If the organisation doesn't have a independent location you can use the contact details of the primary contact.

Office Telephone

Website

Facebook Account

Twitter Account

Main Contact Person

These are the details that will be used for correspondence purposes.

Title

First Name

Last Name

The contact person should be someone who has a good knowledge of the application as this is the person we will contact if we have any queries.

Role in Organisation

Main Contact Address

Number and Street

Town/City

Postcode

Email

Mobile Phone

Home Phone

Page 2

About Your Organisation

What are the aims and priorities of your organisation and what activities or services do you provide?

When was your organisation established?

What type of organisation are you? Please select as many as appropriate

A Registered Charity

YesNo

Charity Number

Company limited by guarantee

YesNo

Company Number

Community Interest Company

YesNo

Company Number

Other Type

YesNo

Specify Other Type

What was your organisations income during the last financial year or last 12 months? Please note: only organisations with an annual income of less than £500,000 will be considered for this fund

Input numbers only

Page 3

Project Information

Projects must begin delivery in line with the start of the 2026 school summer holidays for the relevant borough and be completed by 11 September 2026, allowing time to wrap up delivery. Funding can be allocated from 1 July 2026 for any preparation work required ahead of delivery.

When will the delivery of your sessions begin?

When will your delivery end?

What is the entire duration of your project, including planning and wrap up time?

We realise that you cannot give exact figures but please estimate as accurately as possible. This information is important and will be used to evaluate the project at the end of the grant period.

How many weeks, how many days per week and how many hours per week will your project run for service users? For example, "10am - 3pm Monday to Friday for 6 weeks"

We realise that you cannot give exact figures but please estimate as accurately as possible. This information is important and will be used to evaluate the project at the end of the grant period.

How is food poverty affecting the children and young people you work with in your local community?

Which Local Authority will the activity takes place in?

Postcode of the location for the activity

Please provide the postcode where most of your beneficiaries reside, if there are multiple places please just pick one. If it is too difficult to distinguish please provide the postcode of your organisation.

Is your organisation in receipt of Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) funding from a local authority for Summer 2026? Please tick box yes/no.

YesNo

Are you already delivering a holiday activities and food programme which will run during the summer holiday this year? Please tick box yes/no.

YesNo

If yes...

What age groups do you deliver to?

What is your organisations track record/experience of delivery summer holiday activity and food programmes? Please also tell us when you last delivered a holiday activity and food programme.

Please provide a summary of what you plan to do with the award, the age group of the children you expect to support and the period your activities will run.

If this funding will enable you to increase numbers and/or improve access to an existing holiday programme, how will you be doing this?

If no...

What age groups do you intend to deliver to?

How do you plan to reach and engage children and young people in your area with a holiday activity and food programme who are not already accessing one?

If you are NOT already planning a programme, how are you positioned to deliver a holiday activities and food programme at short notice?

What is your organisation's track record/experience of delivering similar programmes? Please also tell us when you last delivered a similar programme to children and young people.

What additional things would you be able do with this grant? Please provide a summary of what you plan to do with the award, the age of the children you expect to support and the period your activities will run.

Page 4

Beneficiaries

Who are your primary beneficiaries/service users?

Any other beneficiary groups?

Will your project be engaging children and young people with disabilities?

YesNo

If Yes...

Would your proposed project allow you to work with children with disabilities who would not otherwise be able to access your holiday activities and food programme?

Yes

How many additional children with disabilities do you anticipate engaging through your funded project?

If you plan to work with children with disabilities, will any funding be used to increase and/or improve the access children with disabilities have to your holiday activities and food programme? If so, please explain.

Project Budget

What is the total cost of the project?

How much money are you applying to us for?

The maximum amount you can apply for is £15,000.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of the following costs as appropriate;
- Staff costs (requested costs/total costs & breakdown)
- Volunteer costs (requested costs/total costs & breakdown)
- Operational costs (requested costs/total costs & breakdown)
- Office, overhead, premises costs (requested costs/total costs & breakdown)
- Publicity costs (requested costs/total costs & breakdown)
- Any other costs (requested costs/total costs & breakdown)

Please note: Organisations can apply for grants up to £15,000. 10% of this can be allocated towards core organisational costs such as, but not limited to, rent, bills and staff costs.

Please enter a breakdown of costs.

Page 5

Banking Details

Grants awarded are paid via BACS. Please enter your full bank details below.

Bank Name

Bank Account Name

Bank Account Number

Sort Code

Building Society Roll Number (if applicable)

Supporting Documents

Please click on the attachments link below to upload required documents to support this application. Attaching all requested documents will speed up the processing of your application if you can attach them now.

Documents required:

Governing Document
Annual Accounts
Recent bank statement with the group name and address visible
Management Committee Details
Safeguarding Policies- this will be required if your project is working with children or vulnerable adults and must have been reviewed within the last 12 months.

For help and guidance on your groups supporting documents, please refer to our For Supporting Information or email awards@forevermanchester.com if you have any queries.

Attach your Governing Document here

Attach your Annual Accounts here

Attach your Management Committee details here

Attach a recent Bank Statement here

Does your group work with children?

YesNo

Does your group work with vulnerable adults?

YesNo

Attach your Child Protection Policy here

Attach your Vulnerable Adults Policy here

Attach other document here

Using your personal information

By completing this application form, you accept that Forever Manchester will have access to the personal data about you and other individuals named.

As a necessary part of the application process, Forever Manchester will collect personal data about you and other people connected with your organisation. The personal data we collect includes name, address, telephone number, email address and could also include date of birth and photographs.

We will use the information you give us during assessment and during the life of your award (if successful) to manage and monitor the award and check the money is being used appropriately.

If you do not give us consent to use this data, we will not be able to process your application.

We hold and store your information in line with the Data Protection legislation currently in force. For more information explaining how we use your information, please see our privacy policy which can be found on our website by clicking here.

I confirm that I have read and understand the privacy statement above and consent to my personal data being used as outlined within the privacy policy.

Yes

Publicity

Forever Manchester would like to follow up successful applicants and potentially feature them in publicity activities. This could include featuring the work of your organisation on our website or social media channels.

Please tick the box to confirm that if your application is successful, you are happy for Forever Manchester to use information about your group or project for publicity purposes. If you would prefer not to feature in any publicity, don’t worry, not ticking this will not affect the outcome of your award application.

If successful, do you agree to partake in Forever Manchester publicity activities?

Yes

Declaration

Has AI been used to help generate any of the answers within your application? Forever Manchester will not reject an application just because AI has been used. We will ask you to tell us if you’ve used AI, so that we can further our understanding of how it is being utilised, and better support our applicants, whether they choose to use AI or not.

YesNo

If successful we agree to spend any award as outlined in our application form or specified within the award letter. Should we be unable to continue with the awarded project or there are any changes to the way in which we wish to spend the award, we will contact Forever Manchester first.

At the end of the award period we will complete a feedback form about our funded project. We agree to keep all receipts/invoices and financial records relating to any award made and provide this information to Forever Manchester if requested.

Please tick this box to indicate that you have read the above and agree to the terms

Yes

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