During the school holidays Leeds Rhinos Foundation has been working with the Leeds Community Foundation to help ensure children in Leeds do not go hungry during their school break.
Over 30,000 school children in Leeds go hungry in the school holidays as families struggle to meet the costs of feeding their children. In response to this Leeds Community Foundation in partnership Leeds City Council set up the Holiday Hunger Leeds Campaign.
The campaign sees donations given out in grants to local projects that run activities during the school holidays to enable vulnerable children to have access to food, fun activities, learning and provide support to their families.
One project to benefit from the campaign was Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s summer camps that have run across Leeds over may half term and summer and our wider projects such as the Ambassador Rugby League Festival. Each child attending a camp was given a healthy snack which was donated by the Real Junk Food Project.
The summer camps have involved children getting a taster of a range of sports from Gaelic football to Danish longball and they also got the chance to meet stars of the Leeds Rhinos team.
Gareth Cook, community manager at Leeds Rhinos Foundation, said: “The camps have been hugely successful this year, with over 485 children attending. We are grateful to the outer east committee for giving funding for these camps and allowing us to be able to provide this important provision. It has been wonderful to see children swapping some of their sugar snacks on camp for a fruit option’
“Along with helping keep children active over the holidays we have also provided Change 4 Life workshops to look at the importance of healthy food choices and to encourage active lifestyles. We are also proud to support the Holiday Hunger campaign; a great initiative which is doing important work for vulnerable families.”
For more information on the Holiday Hunger campaign visit http://www.leedscf.org.uk/holiday-hunger/