THE DUKE OF SUSSEX VISITS STREETGAMES’ ‘FIT AND FED’ HALF-TERM INITIATIVE
Streatham, London
Tuesday 19th February, 2019
The Duke of Sussex is today visiting a ‘Fit and Fed’ February half-term holiday activity programme, at Streatham Youth and Community Trust’s John Corfield Centre. The national ‘Fit and Fed’ campaign aims to provide children and young people with free access to activity sessions and a nutritious lunch during school holidays.
His Royal Highness will meet volunteers and young leaders from Streatham Youth and Community Trust (SYCT) and hear about the work they are doing to ensure local young people have a safe place to take part in activities, in a bid to prevent holiday hunger and reduce learning loss over the holidays. Volunteers will be leading two activity sessions – trampolining and Jiu-jitsu – for children and young people aged 7 to 16 years attending the half-term programme. The Duke will then meet staff and volunteers in the kitchen preparing a healthy hot lunch, before joining a discussion about the centre’s long-term needs.
Launched in 2016, ‘Fit and Fed’ is a campaign led by StreetGames that aims to tackle the holiday gap of hunger, inactivity, and isolation. The project offers activity sessions and a nutritious meal every day for local children. 73% of the poorest families cannot always afford to feed their children during the school holidays, a gap which is estimated to affect 3 million children and young people across the UK, and 700,000 in London. In 2018, ‘Fit and Fed’ projects delivered sessions at 321 sites, supporting 15,511 children and young people, and served up a total of 146,260 meals and snacks.
SYCT provides youth services and facilities to the young people of Streatham as well as outlying areas. The centre opens six days a week, with evening sports, arts and support sessions taking place each night, and a Saturday breakfast club offering academic support for the core curriculum subjects of Maths, English and Science. The centre also opens during the school holidays and has been delivering ‘Fit and Fed’ sessions for the past two years.
The Duke previously visited ‘Fit and Fed’ sessions in Newham in 2017 and Brent in 2018. During the visit His Royal Highness will have the opportunity to hear about the progress being made by the programme, as well as the use of sport as a tool for social change.
For more information on ‘Fit and Fed’, visit: www.streetgames.org/fandf/fit-and-fed
