Breakfast Club
The breakfast club project was a great opportunity to deliver key health messages to primary school children in an area where inequalities are common. The use of this vehicle has enabled the team to deliver the three key messages originally set out by the funding body. The success of the project was attributed to great partnership working including, the school staff, Oral Health Promotion Officer, Health Improvement and Development Service and Sure Start.The Breakfast Club was able to secure a community building attached to the school, managed by Sure Start. The building served the breakfast club very well; there was already a kitchen with facilities in place. We funded a dishwasher for the use of all the clubs who used the centre. This was also instrumental in being able to provide the breakfast club service free of charge to all its members.
The club was able to employ two staff from the local community to run and coordinate the club. Training was an essential part of the Breakfast Club to ensure the three key messages where delivered. The staff completed training in Food Hygiene, Balance of Good Health and Oral Health.
The three key messages were:
1. Eating a Healthy Breakfast
British Nutrition Foundation has found a healthy breakfast to be an important contribution to a child's diet. Not only does it improve health, it has been shown to improve pupil's performance and concentration levels at school over children who skip breakfast. Eating a healthy breakfast provides us with the energy needed to sustain any level of concentration for learning.2. Oral Health
In Portsmouth, the Community Dental Team 2002 survey showed that 44% of 5 year-old children in Portsmouth City had evidence of current or previous dental decay, 39% demonstrated evidence of untreated decay, and these results were the worst in South East Region.Dental caries is due to bacteria living on the teeth. Bacteria need sugar to survive, breed and grow. Therefore the need to avoid sugary foods in the first place and secondly the need to clean our teeth regularly is essential. Dental caries is wholly preventable.
