A BOLTON charity has started its campaign to give a free lunch to 1,000 of the borough’s most vulnerable children each day through the summer holidays.

Scores of volunteers have been buttering, slicing and filling sandwiches before packing them off to 18 pick-up points across Bolton.

Urban Outreach is aiming to provide about 30,000 meals during the six week holiday to help families who usually rely on free school meals.

The Bolton Lunches project is being expanded this year, following on from last year’s scheme which saw about 600 lunches delivered each day.

The charity is continuing to ask volunteers to help make the lunches every morning between 7.15am and 8.30am until September 4.

The first day of the project saw about 40 volunteers start work early at the former Allied Carpets unit in Trinity Retail Park, with some making sandwiches and others creating lunch packs.

The charity is being assisted in its plight by a host of organisations including Bolton Council, Bolton at Home, Asda and Warburtons.

The Seddon Group and TrustFord have provided vans to the project that will deliver the lunch packs to the various pick-up points.

Hannah Matthews, from Urban Outreach, said the project had got off to an excellent start.

She said: “It has all gone really smoothly so far — we had lots of volunteers doing different jobs to make sure the lunch packs were made and sent off in good time.

“The idea is to distribute them to as many different centres so people can get something locally without having to travel very far.

“We are playing it by ear in terms of numbers— we have started at the point we finished last year — which is about 1,000 a day.

"But we will get feedback from the distribution centres and will base how many we continue to do on what they say.”

Urban Outreach says the project will cost about £30,000 — or £1 per lunch.

The meals consist of a ham, cheese or tuna roll, a pack of cheese biscuits or crisps, a cereal bar, a carton of apple or orange juice and a piece of fruit.

To donate to the cause or volunteer your time visit www.urbanoutreach.co.uk/boltonlunches or call the charity on 01204 385848.