Breakfast at Five Lamps
Throughout the six weeks holiday’s Five Lamps have been hosting Breakfast Clubs within South Thornaby Community Centre for young people and their families who live within Thornaby and surrounding areas.
The Breakfast clubs provided somewhere for families to socialise, meet new people, join in games and activities and enjoy a free breakfast. By delivering the clubs across the school holidays Five Lamps have also been able to reduce holiday hunger for some families across Thornaby and surrounding areas.
Holiday hunger is a real problem for families who normally receive free school meals. Providing those extra meals during school holidays can be a real struggle for many families, so by Five Lamps providing them with a free breakfast, this has made a huge difference to that young person and their families.
Over 100 young people attended the Breakfast clubs, with the footfall reaching 854 people. The young people were able to take part in some fun activities including; a drawing competition, football, games, slime making and making fruit kebabs as well as fruit and yoghurt.
Working in partnership with Corner House Youth Project, Five Lamps also provided a mini bus to collect around 10 young people from Arlington park Youth Club, who also enjoyed attending the breakfast clubs and meeting new people.
Overall the clubs were a huge success with parents/guardians commenting that;
“The community has been brought together, I am now speaking to my next door neighbours who I haven’t really had a conversation with before, just in passing and saying hello”
“The clubs give us somewhere to bring our children, everyone is welcome and it’s got a really nice feeling and community spirit”
“Really good for children, my youngest doesn’t eat much and ate a little more than she would at home”
All of the parents who attended the club also reported that; the young people felt happier from attending the club, had more energy for the day and it has also helped them reduce stress over finances.
Five Lamps were able to deliver the clubs after being successful in a bid to Stockton on Tees Borough Council Public Health to receive funding. They also received donations from; Warburton’s, ASDA, KP foods and Greggs. The generous donations allowed Five Lamps to also provide a bag of lunch materials for the families to take home. As well as donations, staff from ASDA and Thornaby Hub volunteered their time to the club to deliver activities and games to the young people.
The clubs will be continued throughout the school holidays this year, with a week of fun activities planned for October half term and Breakfast with Santa on Christmas Eve.