As schools broke for the October half-term, the West Ham United Foundation (WHUF) delivered a range of free and low-cost provisions to support hundreds of local families and children in need.
The Foundation was able to deliver more than 60 hours of activities to over 200 children in East London and Essex within its Holiday Hammers camps as well as 200 free school meals for Healthy Hammers (Holiday Active Fund) participants, which aims to tackle holiday hunger.
Tackling Holiday Hunger
In addition to engaging children in multisport activities, the Foundation’s Healthy Hammers programme provides those eligible for free school meals with a range of enrichment activities, support for the families involved, as well as one hot meal per day for participants.
The Foundation’s Healthy Hammers Coordinator Courtney Bullis said “As a Foundation we're delighted to continue to offer these essential activities across our communities.” she said. “Being able to take pressures off families who may be struggling and put smiles on the children's faces and provide them with opportunities to develop new skills and new relationships across what could otherwise be a distressing time gives everyone involved a great feeling. Seeing all the children not only engaged but taking on leadership roles and investing themselves fully into the classroom and physical activities makes co-ordinating this type of programme a breeze.”
Given the current economic hardships facing families across the country as a result of the cost of living crisis, Bullis emphasised the importance of the Foundation’s work in the community going into the winter period.
“With the increased cost of living we are noting a higher level of demand for our Healthy Hammers provisions than ever before.” she remarked. “The WHUF are and will continue to respond to the local need through the upcoming December holiday! Keep an eye out for these spaces to go live this month! We have venues all over Essex and East London this December.”
During the three days Healthy Hammers was running at Debden Park High School in Loughton and Lincewood Primary School in Basildon, the programme managed to provide 61 children with ten hours of physical activity, workshops discussing mental health and anti-discrimination, as well as 200 hot meals in total.
Commenting on her experience at the Foundation’s half-term activities at Lincewood Primary School, Scarlett said “I like coming here because you make loads of new friends and the food is really nice! My favourite meal has to be meatballs and pasta.”
Holiday Hammers
As part of the Foundation’s half-term activities, children were also engaged in Holiday Hammers camps during the school break. Over the course of the five days, the holiday camp managed to engage 140 boys and girls aged 5-15 in footballing activities at the Foundation’s base in Beckton.
With his role mainly focused on preparing players for the West Ham United performance academies, Player Development Manager Luke Hirst was pleased to get back to basics with the younger age groups during the half-term break.
“One of the best parts of coordinating Holiday Hammers is to see kids focus more on the social aspect of football. Holiday Hammers is about scaling back football to a no pressure environment; it’s all about the kids making friends and having fun.”
To round off the week of holiday activities, Friday’s session concluded with an award ceremony, whereby coaches from each age group nominated their Hammer of the Week. As well as medals and a signed diploma from West Ham United captain Declan Rice awarded to all participants for completing the sessions, each Hammer of the Week also took home a goodie bag with a replica shirt.
“It was great to see so many young people from different schools and different abilities all coming down to engage and make new friendships through football.” said Hirst. “We had a great mix of young people: beginners, players from our Player Pathway, their family and friends. Everyone really enjoyed it, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back in December.”
If you are eligible for our Healthy Hammers programme or would like further information or support, then please get in touch with Courtney Bullis at [email protected].
To book onto our next Holiday Hammers camps running on 23 and 24 December at the WHUF pitch in Beckton, visit our website at foundation.whufc.com.