A CLUB was run in Caversham this summer to ensure that children were being fed and staying active over the holidays.

The campaign, Fit and Fed, was run by the basketball club, Reading Rockets, from The Weller Centre.

Fit and Fed is part of a national programme which comes from an organisation called Street Games and is the first of its kind in Berkshire.

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The club ran for three weeks with different groups of 20 children aged between 7 and 12 years old turning up Monday to Friday for a day of free activities and food.

Head of Community Programmes for the Reading Rockets, Steph Johnson, explained: "School holidays are supposed to be a fun time of the year, but for a generation of children from low income families it isn’t.

"Children are isolated because there is no free activity programmes on offer, and they are at risk of going hungry because there are no free school meals.

"The Street Games Fit and Fed Programme is a fantastic initiative to provide summer holiday camps which includes at least one nutritious meal for all the children at absolutely no cost."

The scheme is being run in partnership with one of the biggest social housing organisations, Catalyst Housing who have funded this year's project.

The scheme was organised solely for children within Catalyst Housing from Dee Park estate in Tilehurst and Amersham Road estate in Caversham.

Each day the children arrived for breakfast before spending a morning learning football with the Reading FC coaches and basketball with the Rockets Community Coaches.

A mixture of hot and cold lunches were served throughout the week where children were encouraged to learn how to make their own lunches and try new things.

There were afternoon trips to Reading Football Club stadium, canoeing at Wokingham and Waterside Centre, Climbing at The Reading Climbing centre and also local street art company Bigfoot art.

The Reading Rockets are already looking towards next year.

Ms Johnson said: “The plan for next year would be that this grows and we roadshow a bit more around Reading.

"So, we do a week in each community that we feel really needs a Fit and Fed programme and hopefully with more planning time and some more local companies helping out, whether its volunteering or donating food, that actually we can bring the cost down for us which will allow the programme to grow in the future.”

The Fit and Fed Programmes hugely reliant on support and donations from companies to ensure the young children in the communities receive the best camp with the most nutritious food we can provide.

If you work for or know of a company that could support the camp next year especially food donations please email Camp Director Steph Johnson at steph.johnson@readingrockets.co.uk