Any athlete will tell you that if you want to keep your strength up, you need to eat healthily, so a special delivery of fresh bananas was a welcome treat for the youngsters at MK Dons’ Easter camps.
Funded by the Premier League and organised by MK Dons Sport and Education Trust, the three sessions in early April were for children who are entitled to free school meals and offered a combination of football and fun activities, as well as a range of workshops, including one on healthy eating and nutrition.
The PL Kicks Holiday Camps were held at the Lord Grey Academy in Bletchley and over 30 children attended each session.
Coaches from MK Dons passed on their skills to the youngsters and former MK Dons forward Dean Bowditch visited to help with coaching sessions and to speak to the players about his time as a pro during the careers workshop.
To help reinforce the message that good, healthy food tastes good too, SH Pratt Group in Luton provided a box of bananas to keep the footballers’ energy levels high as they were put through their paces.
Jake Butler, Schools Manager at MK Dons, who organised the camps, said: “The sessions were targeted at children on free school meals, so that they could enjoy exercise and fresh air during the school holidays, and also enjoy a nutritious hot meal and to find out more about healthy eating.
“When SH Pratt Group offered to add to that by donating 100 bananas for the children to enjoy, we were delighted, and we’re very grateful to them for their help.
We really appreciate their support and the bananas proved very popular at the healthy eating workshop.”
SH Pratt Group employs over 200 members of the local community in their state of the art ripening, storage, packing and distribution facility in Luton. The firm is one of the largest banana importers in the UK and supplies most of the major retailers.
Robert Wells, CEO of SH Pratt Group, said: “Getting the healthy eating message across is very important and we felt that bananas would be a mess-free way to keep the children’s energy levels up whilst also helping them to understand how fresh, nutritious food plays an important part in our wellbeing.
“We very much support the efforts to make sure that those children who are eligible for free school dinners are getting a good meal and exercise during the school holidays, so it was our pleasure to help out with the camps at MK Dons.”
SH Pratt Group can be contacted on 01582 436500 or visit the website.
For more information on MK Dons Sport and Education Trust, email: jake.butler@mkdonsset.com or visit the website.
