in Glasgow
Tony Feeney :: Tuesday 8th January 2019 :: Latest Blog Posts
Report from the Daily Fruit Programme and Big Chef, Little Chef sessions in Glasgow. "I am extremely overwhelmed with your kind funding award and the practical support offered by SunnySid3-up Charity and Andy Murray Live Charity in achieving our aim to address poverty and hunger in young people attending our Project a reality for many."
Daily Fruit Programme and Big Chef Little Chef sessions in Glasgow
RAPA is situated in a disadvantaged area in the North East End of Glasgow which is in the top 5% of the most deprived areas in Scotland as indicated in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
Many of the children live in tenement flats with no gardens or safe places to play. The area is largely impacted by poverty and hunger, low educational achievement, poor health, health inequalities, high levels of unemployment, coupled with social problems such as mental health issues, family breakdown, domestic abuse and drug and alcohol addiction and an on-going cycle of deprivation affecting many children and young people who access our Playground.
The kind and generous funding award received from Sunny Sid 3 – Up Charity and Andy Murray Live Charity has enabled our Project to offer the children and young people access to a Daily Fruit Programme and Big Chef Little Chef sessions and a fully funded upgraded kitchen area space with all new kitchen appliances and utensils and catering resources where children and young people can now prepare select and eat from a wide range of fruits and food on offer. For many of the children and young people, they did not previously have access to fruit as part of their everyday lives. For many children, their basic needs were not being met and they presented hungry to our playground daily. We identified the need to incorporate fruit and food as a daily activity in a discreet way. Big Chef Little Chef sessions have encouraged children to learn new food prep skills and gain a basic understanding of the need to eat healthy. Children and young people play and engage in outdoor active play and sports and now have daily access to fruit and foods at their sessions as a direct result of funding received from Sunny Sid3- up and Andy Murry Live Charity.
Combatting poverty and hunger
Our aim is to combat the ongoing rising rate of poverty and hunger affecting children and young people which we are now successfully addressing as a direct result of the funding award received which we are truly grateful. As a direct result of the funded programme, we have offered wide ranging practical and lifelong learning opportunities for children and young people to help prevent hunger and assist with addressing health inequalities which will result in an overall improvement to their overall health and wellbeing.
We are fully aware that many attending children and young people to our playground are fending for themselves in regards to feeding themselves (or not in many cases) and do not have access to regular home cooked meals or snacks. We believe our funded sessions have provided a discreet way for us to ensure that children and young people are having access to regular, free nutritious food and fruit daily. Children and young people have gained independence skills in choosing and preparing nutritious snacks and dishes and therefore can apply these learned skills in their everyday lives. Already many children have informed us that they have passed on what they have liked and learned about food and fruit to their parent/s and siblings.
To date 60 -80 children and young people per day/ evening are benefitting hugely from our Fruit and Food Programme and numbers are increasing due to need.
Improving wellbeing
I am extremely overwhelmed with your kind funding award and the practical support offered by SunnySid3-up Charity and Andy Murray Live Charity in achieving our aim to address poverty and hunger in young people attending our Project a reality for many.
Judy Murray and her Team launched her Tennis On the Road Programme at our playground 2 years ago and as a result, Tennis Scotland provided us with a gift in Tennis Court and tennis resources for the children and young people to gain and develop new tennis skills at our playground. For many years, childen played tennis on tarmac surfacing at our playground, so having a carpeted tennis area in our playground is amazing and a very popular area of activity in our playground.
We also formed new partnerships with Rutherglen Tennis Club who provide Tennis Coaching sessions for the children and young people.
We fully recognise that active play, adventure play and all outdoor activity in all weathers promotes overall health and wellbeing. We have now achieved further opportunity to compliment this by being able to offer children and young people a food and fruit for fuel approach to all of the children and young people who attend daily.
We have formed a very special partnership with Sunny Sid3-up Charity.
Thank you,
Ann-Marie Todd, Project Manager
The young people say
"I love being a Little Chef at RAPA. It is the best and I get to eat the fruit and food everyday!
"I get full up every day with all the stuff I eat". "I know how to cook food now so I can show my mum how to make good dinners"
"I love the new kitchen at RAPA.. it looks cool and I feel like I'm the chef fae the telly now."
"I've never seen as much fruit ever before.. I didnae know what some of them wiz but the Big Chef told me so I tried it. I'd never tried watermelon or melon before but it's juicy and good".
"The people who gave all of this stuff are so kind".
Big Chef playworker says
"As a Playworker staff - Big Chef at the sessions, it is amazing to see the children running into our playground and putting on their Little Chef hats and aprons and desperate to get involved at the food and fruit sessions. I also observed many children had no experience of preparing or cooking prior to our Big Chef Little Chef sessions. Many children and young people didn't know names of basic fruit as we would know as 'basic' which is really sad. But they know now! As a result of these hugely successful sessions, children have gained many skills in food preparation, cooking and serving to others. Many children have told me they now want to be chefs when they are bigger, they are now cooking at home for their wee brothers and sisters and overall they love that they can eat a 'yummy hot meal and have access to selection of fruit every day when they come in to play at RAPA.
Being able to food prep and carry out our sessions in our brand new kitchen is an amazing experience. It is so spacious, clean and very modern." Thank you to the kind and generous funder who made our aim for children and young people a reality".