Over 76,000 breakfasts were provided to school children.
On Thursday, April 20, 4,800 boxes of cereal arrived at MEMS Priestfield Stadium as part of a breakfast food distribution event organised by the Gillingham Football Club Community Trust in partnership with His Church Charity.
The event was part of a project led by His Church across the country, which aims to improve educational attainment and social inclusion through the provision of healthy, good quality breakfast cereal to school Breakfast Clubs in partnership with football clubs.
Local schools were invited to come along to the Home of Kent Football to collect their supply of Kelloggs Cornflakes cereal and additional breakfast packs for their pupils.
Alongside the breakfast distribution, schools were also invited to join the Gills at Priestfield Stadium to enjoy a breakfast and learn more about healthy living.
In the morning, the Community Trust Independent School students sat down together to enjoy breakfast before heading to class. During the event, pupils designed their own healthy breakfast cereal, and also had the chance to meet Gills mascot Tommy T.
Gills first team players Ryan Jackson and Tom Hadler also popped in to meet the students and the His Church team before their training session.
In the afternoon, the Gills welcomed a class of Year 9 BTEC Sports students from Brompton Academy to the MEMS Priestfield Stadium. The group enjoyed some activities which took place in The Great Hall. Activities involved designing a cereal box front cover a healthy living quiz involving questions about the health and fitness of a professional Gills player. A full stadium tour then took place with the students meeting some first team players in the gym and discussing fitness and gym related activities.
Head of Football and Sports Development Simon Hodge explained more about the event:
“His Church approached us about the potential partnership event and it was excellent to work with an organisation that holds similar values to ours. This partnership has enabled 30 schools to access cereal for their pupils. Over 76,000 servings of cereal have been handed out to children from the MEMS Priestfield Stadium in one day. We are also aiming to follow up the event by delivering further cereal boxes to more schools that couldn’t make the event. The Gills are also supporting Caring Hands in the Community as they have collected some cases of cereal and are going to actively distribute amongst their homeless and vulnerable community.”
You can find out more about the Gillingham FC Community Trust on Twitter via @GillsCommunity, or contact us on GFCCT@priestfield.com.
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