Peterborough community breakfast club comes to an end after serving almost 300 children on final morning

A Peterborough community breakfast club has come to an end after serving almost 300 children on its final day.

Over 280 people attended the final of the community breakfast club at Gladstone Park Community Centre on Friday morning (March 22).

The club has been run for the last 18 months by the Compass charity- which supports migrant communities in Peterborough- has been supported by funding Peterborough City Council had obtained from government funding.

This funding has now run out, however, the charity are ‘hopeful’ that similar funding may be forthcoming soon and they the scheme will be able to access it.

The breakfast club was run for the benefit of children in the Millfield area, outside of Gladstone Park primary school to give them access to a free breakfast in the morning.

The breakfast club ran on a Monday and Friday, with the charity offering a lunch service between Tuesday and Thursday.

Friday saw a bumper turn out and was made possible by the work of volunteers, including five from Cadent Gas.

Petr Torak, Compass chief executive said: “The last 18 months have been amazing. We have really created some strong bonds between parents and the community.

“Parents have told us that their children have been running to see us and that they have been getting up early on breakfast club mornings to get here.

"We’ve seen the massive effect that this have had and the response, which grew from us serving around 100 children to over 200, shows how important this service was.

"It’s been a pleasure to serve children from all communities. We’re aware that this is one of the most deprived areas of the city and have spoken to parents that are unable to buy fruit to send their children to school with or even give them a breakfast.

“That has a knock-on effect leaving them tired and unable to concentrate in school. We’re been proud to offer this to children in the area.

"We are very hopeful that the government scheme will be extended and that if there is more funding that becomes available, then we will be able to access it.”