Breakfast Clubs - 'It is surprising so few firms have given support'

AFTER one year of hard work, it sadly appears that attempts to introduce a breakfast club into every primary school in the city have not been widely supported. To date, new clubs have only been opened in two schools and although the organisers remain confident that a further 90 will sign up before 2010 their optimism seems misplaced.

When the Evening News was approached by Hearts, the city council and Aegon early last year we willing endorsed the initiative and offered our full support. The opportunity to ensure that every child, particularly those living in deprived areas of the city, would have a healthy start to the day was too good to miss. For many children it was suspected it might provide the only properly balanced meal they got each day.

As early as 2003 the city council launched the breakfast club scheme which to date has seen 28 established in the city. It followed research by the Health Education Board for Scotland which found four out of ten children in Scotland were not eating breakfast. This contributed to unhealthy eating practices later in the day and to obesity, which costs NHS Lothian £22 million a year.

In addition, poor diet and being overweight at an early age have been proven in later life to increase the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

In a week when the health authority has announced plans to allocate personal fitness instructors to 400 children who are considered obese, the value of encouraging healthy eating and exercise is there for all to see.

The task of persuading companies to sponsor a club – at a relatively inexpensive £4200 a year – will not have been made any easier by the banking crisis. But it is surprising to date that so few have pledged their support.

It would be a shame if sponsors were not forthcoming to back individual breakfast clubs because of the project's association with one football club in a city where loyalties between two clubs are sharply divided. It would be no surprise in Glasgow, but less so here.

If there is a suspicion that this could be the case then maybe a meeting should be arranged between the Hearts Foundation and their counterparts at Easter Road with a view to launching a joint initiative.

Hearts have shown the way, but the message could be all the more powerful if both sides of the footballing divide were united behind this excellent initiative.