First initiative 'Early Kick-Off' aims to provide 200,000 free breakfasts for school children
Huddersfield Town has today made a long term pledge to make a difference to the lives of children and young people in its community with the launch of the Huddersfield Town Foundation.
A registered charity, the Foundation is the vision of Huddersfield Town Chairman, Dean Hoyle, and was officially launched at North Huddersfield Trust School in Fartown today to attendees including dignitaries such as Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney, business leaders and press from across the region.
The Foundation aims to use the power of Huddersfield Town and football as a way to engage with youngsters across the region to improve the lives of the young people that need it the most.
Dean Hoyle is pictured with students from North Huddersfield Trust school in the Huddersfield Town Foundation Mini, which will be spreading the word about the Foundation.
Huddersfield Town Foundation Trustee Dean Hoyle today explained his reasons behind setting up the Foundation:
“The football club has always tried to engage with its local area through initiatives such as its Football in the Community department, but the Foundation is something entirely different.
“The Club took around 1,000 local kids to Wembley last season for our Play-Off Final and the needs of some of the children in the area, combined with the generosity of the people and businesses that donated £45,000 to the cause, really opened my eyes to just what can be achieved by working together with the football club.
“For me, it is about the need to do the right thing and we’re going to use the expertise of the people at Huddersfield Town, along with the skills of the other businesses that come on board and support us, to improve the lives of thousands of local children in our area.”
Early Kick-Off: providing 200,000 free breakfasts across our region
The first official project of the Foundation, the ‘Early Kick-Off’ Breakfast Club, was also outlined on the afternoon. The Foundation has joined forces with several organisations such as Total Foodservice, Kirklees College, Kirklees Council, Caterer’s Choice, Kids Premiership and Polar Ford to supply schools in the football club’s heartland with a free breakfast and NVQ level food hygiene training support.
‘Early Kick-Off’ aims to provide thousands of free breakfasts so that an initial six schools can feed their pupils every morning – completely free of charge. This equates to 58,500 free breakfasts for local youngsters in our region – and that number will grow if the Foundation receives further donations.
The Foundation will announce several other projects over the coming months, but now the focus is on beginning the donation drive – as Dean explained:
“The Foundation will deliver projects such as ‘Early Kick-Off’ from start to finish – all we need is the financial support of businesses and people in our region to make this happen.
“When we started talking about the Foundation, the breakfast club quickly became the landmark project. There are some alarming figures in our region; there’s a 233% increase in children relying on charities to be fed; 83% of teachers report evidence of hunger in their classrooms and one million kids across the UK don’t know when their next meal is coming.
“Together we can use the Foundation and Early Kick-Off to make a real difference to kids who suffer from those issues in our community and we have to seize it. By helping the kids kick-off their day in the right way helps to set them up for the rest of their time at school.”
If you want to make a donation to the Foundation please click HERE or visit www.htafcfoundation.com
Huddersfield Town will continue to work directly with other charities through the course of the season, in particular the magnificent partnership with the Yorkshire Air Ambulance – the ‘Keep It Up’ campaign. Work will continue as we strive to reach the £1 million fundraising target.
