To help families in Greater Manchester this summer holiday, Kellogg’s is donating 175,000 servings of cereal and 14,000 cereal bars to support the holiday activities and food programme (HAF). HAF is an initiative organised by local authorities that supports families receiving free school meals throughout the holiday period.
The food donations will be provided at holiday clubs across five boroughs in Greater Manchester, including Salford, Manchester, Oldham, Wigan and Bolton. They will be distributed by FareShare.
During school breaks, children from low-income households are more likely to experience ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health, as well as experiencing social isolation or hunger¹. In addition to this, recent research from Kellogg’s found that 46 per cent of families would be interested in a holiday breakfast club and 16 per cent of parents said it would help them provide food in the school holidays. Almost half (48 per cent) say it would give them access to fun activities2.
To tackle this, the government funded programme supports children and their families by putting on holiday clubs – offering enrichment activities, free breakfast and lunch for those in attendance.
Beth Myring, general manager and coordinator of the HAF provision at Lifecentre in Salford, said: “In Greater Manchester, we run HAF funded clubs to support our local communities. One thing we noticed was that children were arriving hungry, not having had breakfast, which is why we reached out to Kellogg’s to see if they could support. The donation they are making is gratefully received and we’re sure it’ll make a huge difference to the children and families we work with.’’
Kellogg’s Breakfast Clubs Programme has been running since 1998 and currently supports over 4,000 clubs, investing more than £5million since it started by providing training, grants and food.
Heather Murphy, ESG manager for Kellogg UK said: “We’ve been supporting breakfast clubs in the UK for 25 years, so we understand the impact being hungry can have on children – from their ability to learn, to their mood. Providing provision for children and families during the school holidays is incredibly important, and we’re pleased we can support HAF and FareShare by donating our food.’’
¹ Source here
² The research was carried out by Spark Market Research between 12th January and 1st February 2023.
