Campaigners are demanding that vouchers for use in place of free school meals should be supplied over the Easter holidays after the government said it would provide them for term time only.

On Tuesday, the Department for Education published updated guidance for children eligible for benefits-related free school meals whose schools are closed or only open for certain groups.

Schools are being urged to work with their catering team or provider to see if they can prepare meals or food parcels that can be delivered to or collected by families. Where this is not possible they can provide families with supermarket vouchers worth £15 each week to spend with six leading supermarkets.

The guidance, however, has confirmed that vouchers will be provided for term time only meaning families face having no free meal provision over the Easter holidays.

Campaigners welcomed the vouchers as providing a necessary safety net but expressed dismay that they will not be available over the holiday period. “Given the extraordinary pressures that families are under, this is grossly remiss,” said Rob Percival, head of food policy at the Soil Association.

The government has said it will continue to provide schools with funding, including to cover free school meals and universal infant free school meals, throughout the period of closure. Percival said the voucher scheme should be extended across the Easter holidays but, in the absence of any other holiday provision, the government should encourage schools to use their funding to provide vouchers for vulnerable families as needed across the holidays.

Schools and contracting authorities are also being urged to pay catering providers and suppliers whose financial viability may be at risk because of coronavirus until at least the end of June even if service delivery is disrupted or temporarily suspended.