Help wanted to set up breakfast club
A charity group based out of a Cambuslang church are hoping to take a bite out of food poverty by setting up a breakfast club.
The organisers behind SPACE (Supporting Parents And Children Everywhere), which is based at St Bride’s Church, are planning to start giving out breakfast packs to hungry youngsters.
Fiona White, who set up SPACE, believes it is a natural next step for the group, who are now crowd-funding to get a van that would help them make deliveries.
Fiona said: “What we are hoping to be doing by the start of November will be these breakfast clubs, which will involve giving out packs with bread, milk, cereal, butter and fruit.
“We know there are a lot of families out there who cannot provide their children with any sort of healthy breakfast, so we started thinking about how we could help them.
“We already have a company who are willing to donate the packs of food and are keen to help out, so we are now crowdfunding for a van.
“On the Sunday we’ll take the list of families that we have been given, and we will go round ad drop off the breakfast packs.
“We are already looking at trying to help about 70 families, and it’s just myself who drives, so it won’t all be fitting in my wee car! That’s why we need the van.”
Fiona works in schools and believes it is urgent that schools are helped out.
She said: “There are so many pupils that have nothing to eat – you can tell when they come in.
“They’ll mention they have sore stomachs, they can’t concentrate in class and it affects their education as well as their health because they’ll end up lagging behind their classmates.
“They have enough issues in their wee lives so if I can get some food in their tummies that can help them even a little I will try to do that. It’d give them a good start to the day and just help them out.
“SPACE has been doing well, so this feels like the next step.
“A lot of folk think I’m a tad crazy for doing this, and I probably am, but I want to help.”
Fiona has also been delighted at the ongoing support of St Bride’s, where Father Paul Morton has regularly helped SPACE, including letting them use the church as their base.
She added: “There’ll be a base in St Bride’s, and hopefully something for the East End as well.
“I couldn’t run SPACE without Father Morton. He’s a great support and been an absolute diamond at helping us.”
Anyone interested in helping the breakfast group get off the ground should visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ space-family-group for more information.
They’ll mention they have sore stomachs so they can’t concentrate in class