Select Car Leasing has pledged more than £4,000 to provide young children with healthy meals during school holidays, working in partnership with Reading F.C.
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During the summer, winter and Easter school breaks, the Reading F.C Community Trust runs free week-long Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Camps.
They’ve been created to offer ‘a safe environment to care, develop and educate the disadvantaged or at-risk young people within Reading and the surrounding areas’.
A big part of the camps’ appeal is that the youngsters get to sit down and eat healthy and nutritious food, alongside taking part in a host of other activities designed to boost physical and mental wellbeing.
And to help support the scheme, Select Car Leasing has now pledged thousands of pounds to go towards the cost of food.
A sum of £1,600 was donated at the end of last year and a further £2,750 will arrive at the Reading FC Community Trust in the coming days, making a grand total so far of £4,350.
Dave Evans, General Manager of the Reading F.C Community Trust, says the HAF Camps can make a real difference to the lives of young people.
He said: “The Camps allow young people to come and take part in something which they wouldn’t typically be able to do, so it’s great to be able to provide such a service.
“And we don’t just feed the children healthy food at the Camps, we also make sure they take part in lots of fun activities, while recognising that not everyone likes football.”
Dave, who is also a coach in the Reading F.C academy, adds: “When it comes to the food, we often see children on the camps who are slightly wary of what they’re served at the beginning of the week, simply because they’ve never eaten anything like it before.
“But by the end of the week, they’re wolfing it down!
“Reading F.C Community Trust is extremely grateful for the support we’ve received, and continue to receive, from Select Car Leasing.
“Every penny of the money donated by Select goes to providing food to the children on the camps. And it makes a real difference to the success of the scheme.”
Each day of a Camp week begins at 10am and ends around 3pm.
While they’re predominantly held at the Select Car Leasing Stadium Indoor Dome, there are also further Camp centres in the local area, particularly for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Those SEND camps, Dave says, are particularly vital for parents who welcome the opportunity to have free respite care during the school holidays.
He adds: “Parents of SEND children have sent us some lovely letters of thanks, saying they simply can’t find this provision anywhere else in the county. Not only do the parents have respite care, they also know the child is being fed. It’s definitely a provision that’s needed.”
Following pilot schemes of the HAF Camps in 2018 and 2020, the first official programme got underway in 2021.
The Community Trust points to research that shows how school holidays can be ‘pressure points’ for some families, with parents struggling to afford out-of-school activities for their children. Those youngsters might experience more ‘social isolation’ than other kids.
Then there’s also the issue of ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health.
Participants in the camps are from low-income families who are often on free school meals.
The youngsters - aged between 12 and 16 - are put forward for the camps by their own school or local council.
And they don’t just get to dine-out for free, they also enjoy an action-packed day of week where each day involves at least three hours of physical activity. Besides football, the youngsters also get to experience sports like frisbee, Kimball, dodgeball, soft archery, handball and Gaelic football.
The stats behind the camps speak for themselves.
To date, 114 participants have accessed 64 hours of physical activity while 1,020 meals have been made available.
The funds supplied by Select Car Leasing come from a scheme whereby for every Select customer who says they’re a Reading F.C supporter when they lease a vehicle, Select adds £50 to the Community Trust kitty.
Select Car Leasing Director Mark Tongue (above, in yellow, while taking part in a charity football match at the ground) says:
“When we learned that Reading F.C Community Trust would benefit from financial support in order to run the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Camps, we jumped at the chance. It was a no-brainer for us. As a socially responsible business headquartered in Reading, Select Car Leasing is passionate about supporting local youth initiatives. And the HAF Camps scheme is a worthwhile venture indeed, helping countless families negotiate the tricky challenges that often come with school holidays.”
Select Car Leasing has been Principal Partner of Reading F.C since June 2021.
Select also runs a separate ‘Tickets for Kids’ project, whereby more than 1,000 free tickets are made available each season for youngsters from local grassroots football clubs to go and watch a Reading F.C home game.
The next HAF Camps are due to take place at Christmas.
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