Big Hearts Community Trust has reported a significant increase in young people accessing its holiday activities

A charity has reported a significant increase in children who are at risk of holiday hunger.

Big Hearts Community Trust, which operates in south west Edinburgh, has announced a record attendance of its summer programme for young people affected by holiday hunger and social isolation.

The School's Out project provided 800 free meals in July along with free activities, breakfast and snacks. A total of 61 children were supported, an increase of three times in comparison with last year.

Big Hearts use facilities at Tynecastle football stadium to reach out to the most families vulnerable outside of school term, in a part of Edinburgh where the free school meals rate is twice higher than average across the capital.

Big Hearts' general manager Craig Wilson said: "Our close work with the local schools in identifying the young people most at risk led us to increase the scale of our summer programme to four weeks and three times more children involved.

"What strikes us the most is the variety of backgrounds of the local families who found themselves struggling to feed their kids during the school holidays."