7 Layer sponsor Greggs Breakfast Club at Ridge Academy
Comment: 7 Layer are incredibly proud to be collaborating with the Greggs Foundation by sponsoring their Breakfast Club initiative, thus ensuring that the children of Cheltenham based Ridge Academy can enjoy a nourishing morning meal.
Breakfast is often hailed as the most important meal of the day, providing fuel in preparation for the demands ahead. Studies have shown that kids and teens who eat breakfast have more energy, perform better in school and tend to eat healthier throughout the day. Punctuality, attendance, attitude, behaviour and productivity all improve as a result. Moreover, a communally organised breakfast has proven to hone a child’s social skills which, in turn, assists development of their self-confidence and helps them face the challenges of the competitive world to come. Conversely, without breakfast, those same children have shown signs of irritability, restlessness and tiredness, which can lead to increased disruption both on an individual level and in the classroom as a whole.
So what does the Greggs Foundation Breakfast Club provide?
About Greggs Foundation – Breakfast Clubs
The Greggs Breakfast Club Programme was established in 1999 to help primary school children get a nutritious start to their
school day. Every school is provided with fresh bread for free from their nearest Greggs shop and the Foundation fund and work with partners to support start-up and ingredients costs for initially two years. An average club for 50 pupils costs just £2,000 to set up and is run for a year. Greggs deploy a very cost effective model that ensures those children who need it most benefit from the scheme. Greggs’ staff volunteer at every school and parents and guardians are encouraged to participate as this helps to build on parent/teacher relations and is also an excellent way for parents to become involved with the school.
With all these tangible benefits, it is not hard to see why 7 Layer wanted to sign up to the scheme. The decision to support the initiative was made easily and the next stage was to find a suitable school.
About Ridge Academy, Cheltenham
The Ridge Academy is a Special Educational Needs school specialising in the development of children with behavioural and learning needs. An individual facility, the school can support 40 pupils at present, but has the potential to expand over the coming years. The staff and academy currently provide a free breakfast for all the children, but are having sustainability issues as this has to come out of a decidedly stretched school budget.
Most of the children use school transport which can leave particularly early in the mornings, 7am for a school arrival at 8.30am, which is only one of the contributing factors as to why these children arrive hungry. Others include children coming from families where breakfast is not available to them and the fact that many experience a complex array of social difficulties and needs.
After a visit to Ridge Academy, 7 Layer shareholders were highly impressed with what they saw, how staff care for their children and the range of support Greggs offers to schools. 7 Layer pride themselves on giving back to their local community, so contributing financially to a Cheltenham school was important to them.
The partnership will be launched on June 26th 2017.
About 7 Layer
Formed in 1999, 7 Layer Solutions is a dedicated systems house specialising in software application development projects for the cash logistics sector. Due to our considerable experience and expertise within this environment we have undertaken outsourced development work for banks and cash in transit companies, as well as global suppliers of cash processing and vault management systems.
We are keen advocates of reinvesting in our local community and a number of other initiatives we undertake reflect this. We regularly attend interview practise events at another local school, as well as offering intern and workplace experience opportunities. Staff are also due to volunteer at Cheltenham animal shelter in May this year and took part in an epic 40 mile night hike last year raising a staggering £2,278 for children’s charity Action Medical Research as part of the Cotswold Plod.
About Greggs Foundation
The Greggs Foundation is a grant-making trust closely associated with, but wholly independent of, Greggs plc. Its aim is to make a difference to people in need at the heart of the local communities which Greggs serves. A significant proportion of the Greggs Foundation’s impact is achieved through the generosity of Greggs’ employees and customers.
Further relevant news
Greggs has been shortlisted for The UBS Award for Education for ‘The Greggs Breakfast Club partnership’ and has been awarded the “Big Tick” accreditation as a result.
Their recent twitter activity (also retweeted by 7 Layer was as follows)
Shortlist announcement link Scroll to Greggs write up.
Who are UBS? – A financial services company based in Switzerland.
Greggs Foundation Breakfast Club.
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