RP Adam Ltd (Arpal Group) has pledged £10,000 over three years to help tackle “holiday hunger” across Scotland.
The investment is part of the ‘Meals & More’ programme pioneered by Brakes, the UK’s leading food wholesaler.
One in four children in the UK currently lives in poverty and does not benefit from a consistently healthy and nutritious diet. While these children may have access to school lunches during term time, they are not guaranteed evening meals and meals during school holidays. Brakes’ Meals & More programme aims to alleviate this issue by providing tasty, nutritious meals and enrichment activities to children and young people aged between two and 18.
The scheme brings together foodservice suppliers and non-profit organisations to provide holiday clubs across the country, providing meals and activities including sports, crafts and life skills. The programme targets areas of greatest need and helps provide a platform for the community to support holiday provision.
Selkirk-based RP Adam will now provide annual funding for Meals & More clubs across the south of Scotland.
Lee-Anne Gillie, Director of UK Operations at RP Adam Ltd, said: “The figures around how many children in Scotland who are going without at least one hot meal a day are truly shocking. It’s unacceptable to us that there are young people in our community suffering from malnutrition – and with so many staff having families of their own we were strongly affected by these findings.
“By partnering with the Meals & More programme, we will be able to offer local families help in a real and tangible way that could have a practical impact on the future education and prospects of our younger generation.”
To date the Meals & More programme has helped to:
- Provide 143 children with 2,440 nutritious meals
- Provide 81 of these children with daily activities
- Engage 29 parents/carers in activities
- Support an additional 250 meals by Community Chefs
Brakes has ambitious growth plans for Meals & More, aiming to establish 500 clubs across the UK through a partnership network of suppliers and manufacturers.
Pem Hulusi, Programme Manager for Meals & More added: “We are committed to supporting children living in poverty today by strengthening our delivery partners’ foundations and working with our supplier base to gain funding to support new and existing clubs nationally.
“We want to provide our next generation with a fair start in life. Not only are we providing funding, but we are offering those clubs stock at a non-profit basis, maximising our resources to enable our clubs to continue to grow.”
Brakes is the leading foodservice company in the UK and launched the Meals & More programme in 2016. It’s being supported with research and evaluation on the effects of holiday hunger by a PhD student at the University of Northumbria.
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