Tesco Community Champions help Chesterfield College to provide students with a nutritious start to the day
Tesco Community Champions from the local Tesco Extra store visited Chesterfield College’s breakfast hub last week to see first-hand how their food donations are helping to provide students with a nutritious start to the day.
The breakfast hub is just one initiative that is helping students to adopt healthier lifestyles as part of a national project funded by Sport England and the National Lottery, called Tackling Inactivity in Colleges. The donations are helping to boost the variety of food available as well as ensuring that the service is available every day of the week.
The Tesco Community Champions are part of the FareShare project, which works with large supermarket chains and food outlets to redistribute surplus food to charities and organisations in need. As well as donating breakfast foods such as bread, fruit and pastries to the college, the group also give fresh food to soup kitchens, community groups and even farms.
Tesco Community Champion, Jane Clavin said: “The project is really important because not only does it help reduce wastage and improve our environment, but it also acts as a lifeline for many people in our community. Working with the college has been great because we are helping to provide a varied breakfast for lots of young people who may not have had the opportunity to eat breakfast at home. If students haven’t eaten a decent breakfast then their brains aren’t switched on.”
Sarah Vaughan, Healthy Lifestyle Lead at Chesterfield College who runs the breakfast hubs said: “Without the help of the Tesco Community Champions, we wouldn’t be able to provide our students with a free breakfast every single day. The quality and variety of food we have on offer is fantastic. Students can choose from a wide range of things from toast and crumpets to yogurts and fruit. We now serve breakfast to around 30-40 students a day. Many of the students who take advantage of the service have also increased the amount of physical activity that they do each week too. When the students get to know the team and find out what other things we offer, such as the range of sports clubs, they are keen to give them a go too. The breakfast hub has so many benefits.”
Chesterfield College has been working with the superstore for over 7 months and in that time they have delivered free breakfasts to hundreds of students.
Tesco Community Champions Karen Pearson and Jane Clavin with Sarah Vaughan from Chesterfield College.
