Call for business to back Big Breakfast Club

CHILDREN in Newry and Armagh are going hungry and that is likely to be exasperated when school term ends for the summer.

That is why Sticky Fingers and Caring Coins have teamed up with a pledge to provide breakfast during the summer months and they need help from the Newry business community, called the Big Breakfast Club.

Grainne from Sticky Fingers has seen at first hand the hunger in Newry feels like she has to do something. Only recently, Grainne and Kerrie from Caring Coins Only noticed little white specks around the Imaginarium and they followed the trail and a little boy had potatoes in his pocket for when he got home.

“On the back of the statistics [from End Child Poverty Coalition, carried out by Loughborough University] that shows that over a quarter of children and families within Newry and Armagh are living in poverty,” said Grainne.

“We have direct experience of children who are actually attending sessions here who are hungry and in the last couple of months we are conscious of children taking food home to give to siblings later on or to have something to eat later on.

“We are seeing it every day. Over 40 percent of the children that use the Imaginarium are considered from low-income families and are actually on supported placements in here. So, they are not paying to be here but are given a space to play. The other big issue is that the children and families living in the direct facility of Cecil Street and Edward Street and around this area would be families who are minority families, refugee families and families who are often left behind. We are seeing where a lot of the children have absolutely nowhere to play.

“So, one of the other issues is how can we create green spaces in our City centre for families because there seems to because they don’t have access to a car or cannot afford a bus fare to the parks out of town, we have a big issue of play deprivation which is impacting on child poverty.

“So, the fact we are now in 2024, recovering post-covid, in a cost of living crisis and what Kerrie and I are seeing on a day-to-day basis is families struggling and the impact on children is absolutely horrifying. We have children in this day and age who are actually hungry.”

“We had a child taking cold spuds home in his pocket so he had something to eat that night and we are meeting families and children on a day-to-day basis who do not have enough food. So, Kerrie and I have had conversations.

Kerrie explained the plan: “Over the summer months we are extending the space in here to have a breakfast club but also providing support to families with food. So, we want every child in Newry the opportunity to play and have a childhood. We are doing this due to the generosity of the business community of Newry because there is no funding to facilitate any of this. This needs to happen.

“We are seeking the assistance of local businesses who can maybe support us with a donation of the minimum of £250 for the ten weeks. The hope is to get enough support so we can provide toast, tea, cereals, warm food too such as porridge and Weetabix and maybe even boiled eggs, so if they aren’t used that morning they can be taken home and used for a sandwich or something later on.

“The only way we can get out of it is if the community pulls together and change things.”

The Breakfast Club is open for everyone, adults included, from 10am to 12pm from Tuesday to Saturday until the end of August we will be providing at least one warm bite to eat a day.

It starts on Tuesday, June 25.

To donate:

Account name: Caring Coins.

Account no: 17834912.

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