Food and summer fun for Portsmouth children at the Salvation Army

published on 30 Jul 2019

Cooking

A CENTRE in Portsmouth is running a project to make sure children who receive free school meals are not going to go hungry this summer.

The Salvation Army has received a grant to run Connect4Summer from its Portsmouth Citadel on 17 Lake Road from 29 July on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Although the project isn’t running on Thursday 1 August, it will be on all the other days between 10.00am and 3.00pm until Friday 23 August.

Free places are now available on the project which will provide fun-filled activities and a two course meal for children who receive free school meals and their families.

There will be art classes; circus skills sessions and educational activities to support children’s learning over the school holidays and food hampers for families to take home from the sessions.

“From speaking to people in our community, we were aware that July and August can be a difficult time especially for low-income families and we realised there was a real need for a service that made sure children were being fed nutritious meals and kept entertained and engaged during the summer holidays” said Major Andrea Still from The Salvation Army in Portsmouth.

“We were looking for funding to run a project that did this and thanks to a generous £12,000 grant from the like-minded Connect4Summer programme which will cover staff costs, craft materials, food and activities, we’re very proud to be able to provide this vital service for our local community this summer.

“Families can come to up to two sessions per week for free and we can accommodate 25 families per day and we are hoping up to 80 families will be able to make use of Connect4Summer over the school summer holidays” added Major Andrea.

Connect4Summer at The Salvation Army in Portsmouth is aimed at children aged 4 to 12-years-old who receive free school meals. Parents will need to stay with their children.

Find further details about Connect4Summer and other services that are available at The Salvation Army’s Portsmouth Citadel.