Our social services are providing food material support to children and their families who have been affected by the global pandemic and its mitigation measures. Such an event, like the pandemic, may disrupt parenting practices and family routines and thus affect child health and development. By supporting the economic stability and reducing the material hardship of dozens of families who use our services we enhance parents' capacity to deal with or avoid the instability caused by the crisis.

The support was targeted at families with children under the age of 7 and pregnant women. We selected those who had lost their job because of the pandemic or whose economic condition has worsened enough to prevent them from meeting their basic needs. We were working with families that were already our clients as well as with families that we identified during outreach initiatives in Fakulteta - one of the largest Roma neighborhoods in Sofia. We signed a contract with each of the families for a period of three moths and within this period, we provided them with two sets of supplies with nonperishable food.

The programme involves five stages:

1. Evaluation of the needs of the family.
2. Developing a support plan in collaboration with the family.
3. Providing the emergency support.
4. Reporting on the effects.
5. Closing the case or referring the family to a different programme in coordination with the education, healthcare and/or social support systems.