Holiday Activities and Food Programme video transcript
Christina Chapman - HAF Programme Coordinator, The Education People: Hello, I'm Christina, and I help coordinate the Holiday Activities and Food programme in Kent. The programme is funded for children of school age who are in receipt of free school meals.
At the programme they can expect to have a healthy, nutritious meal, have access to physical activity, creative experiences, time with their friends. Families have access to information and support from organisations and can know that their children are in a safe space. If you'd like to know more about the HAF programme in Kent, please visit our website, details of which are at the end of this video.
[Primary school-age boys playing football on a pitch.]
HAF programme staff member: I think it's building different relationships with children outside of school environment and bringing families and communities together and all working together as a team. We have food education programmes, lots of sports and arts and crafts. Just seeing the children want to come in and be with us in their holidays and have fun and make new friends. All of us, really. That's that's the most enjoyable part.
Parent 1: I'm a single mom, so being able to get them to do fun stuff still in the holidays is really nice. And just getting to play, explore different opportunities with other people because it's just an opportunity for them to have fun basically, and play more football, if you've got kids that like football, or actually they do art and make cakes as well.
Parent 2: It's social interaction as well. I mean, the boys get to see the friends from different schools, they get to make friends. I get to sit and have a coffee and chat with the parents. The social side of it is really good as well, and free breakfast! So yeah, yeah, it helps us all. It gives me a break when the boys are here, it means I can go and relax.
Child 1: Just generally seeing friends is a good thing and there's normally good food and so you can have lots of fun.
Child 2: When I was playing football over there I met this kid and he fell over when I tackled him, so I picked his arm up and said "are you all right?" and he said "yeah" and then we kind of became friends.
[Primary school-age girls cutting paper and colouring as part of an arts and crafts activity.]
Child 3: The best thing coming to the club is where you meet new friends and you play activities and you do stuff that instead of being at home, being bored, you could just go to school, learn new things, and and do the activities that they tell you.
HAF programme staff member: Yes, I would recommend other organisations to join the HAF programme because it brings a community together, it helps people to do things that they haven't done before, and it just helps makes children have a nice time.
[Children colouring and cutting out pictures in the arts and crafts room.]
[The boys playing a football match outside on the pitch.]
[Caption] www.theeducationpeople.org/KentHAF
[End card] HAF Programme logo, Department for Education logo and Kent County Council logo.