An independent art gallery in Newcastle is supporting a local school’s breakfast club with new art packs to inspire pupils to get creative as they tuck into their first meal of the day.
The Biscuit Factory’s charitable arm, The Biscuit Factory Foundation, is sponsoring a Greggs Foundation breakfast club at neighbouring Christ Church CE Primary School in Shieldfield.
As well as donating funds to the project to support the provision of breakfast to 40 children aged between 5 and 11 years old throughout term time, the gallery is also providing specially created art packs.
Each pack contains a large drawing pad, chalk board and a selection of crayons and chalk, as well as dice from Rory’s Story Cubes, which will help the children to create their own story board and pictures.
Tom Gostling, Head of Events at The Biscuit Factory who is leading on the collaboration, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting children in our local community through these fantastic breakfast clubs. Not only will this club ensure pupils start their day with a nutritious meal, our art packs will also encourage them to get creative too.
“According to research cited by Rory’s Story Cubes, some parents, despite their best intentions, say they struggle to tell stories at home so we hope our packs will encourage this kind of interaction and contribute to developing their kids’ social skills, creative thinking – and their artistic abilities too!”
Lynne Hindmarch, Breakfast Club Manager (North and Pennines Regions) at Greggs Foundation, commented: “Greggs Foundation is delighted to partner with The Biscuit Factory Foundation to support the children at Christ Church CE Primary. Greggs Foundation has supported breakfast clubs for 20 years, we believe every child deserves the best start to their day and we are grateful to The Biscuit Factory Foundation who are enriching the children’s experience at breakfast club with art materials in addition to the funding provided for food items.”
Sandra Furno, Head Teacher of Christ Church CE Primary School, added: “The children loved the packs and look forward to sharing breakfast with members from the Foundation and Greggs again. We really appreciate the organisation enhancing our art projects with these valuable resources.”
The Biscuit Factory Foundation has committed to supporting Christ Church CE Primary School’s breakfast club for the next two years and will replenish the art packs at the start of each new term. In the coming months, the gallery will also provide the school with art supplies for special one-off projects.
The Greggs Foundation breakfast club programme provides schools with fresh bread from their nearest Greggs shop and a grant to support start-up and ongoing costs. There are now over 500 breakfast clubs providing breakfast to more than 34,000 children every school day.