Posted 25/04/2022

Swan provides 1,209 school holiday meals

Working in partnership with Essex Boys and Girls Club, Active Essex, Feeding Britain, the London Tigers and Newark Youth, Swan has provided 1,209 much-needed meals to children living in the communities where we work.

During the past year, Swan’s community hubs, located at The Reach and Exmouth, in East London, and The Beech, in Basildon, have played host to a series of Holiday Hunger clubs for children aged 6-16 years old.

Taking place during the school holidays, the sessions have not only provided healthy and nutritious meals, but the children attending have also been able to take part in fun activities such as arts and crafts, dodgeball and team games.

Working with our partners, Swan’s Customer Involvement and Community Development (CICD) team secured funding for the sessions, meaning they were free to attend. This support comes at a time when many families are feeling the strain, with increasing fuel and food costs, and is just one of the ways we can help to relieve some financial pressure for our customers.

Parents with children attending the recent Holiday Hunger sessions at The Reach Community Hub, in Blackwall Reach, commented on how nice it was for their children to interact with others, developing their social skills and improving their confidence.

One parent said: “Because of the pandemic, he’s not had much interaction with friends, so socially it really benefits him. It’s also improved his confidence, ready for when he goes to secondary school in September. Just travelling here gives him that little bit of freedom, being able to go from here to the park, allowing him to slowly detaching from me.”

Another parent commented: “For them to get out of the house and have somewhere to go and just play with other kids, it’s just a lifesaver. We have a tiny little two-bedroom place so they can’t really move.”

We will continue to work with our partners and also plan to roll this programme out to the Bow Cross and Laindon communities.