Partnership creates colourful competition for North Shields Breakfast Club

Waterville Primary School in North Tyneside joined the Greggs Breakfast Club network when it opened for school children three years ago. 

This lively club in the heart of North Shields was created thanks to a unique partnership between Wingrove Motor Company and digital marketing agency, The Social Co. 

Thanks to their successful collaboration, Waterville Primary School has been able to offer their Greggs Breakfast Club to support children and families in their school community since 2019 – helping to provide over 49,000 breakfasts to date. 

Key to getting Breakfast Club sponsorship at Waterville Primary School up and running was Josh Parker, managing director of Wingrove Motor Company.  He was the first to recognise the value of directly helping the local community by collaborating as a partner with the Greggs Foundation Breakfast Club programme. 

Josh Parker, managing director of Wingrove Motor Company commented: “Being able to support the Greggs Breakfast Club at Waterville Primary School for so many years has been a real source of pride in the business. It gives Wingrove the opportunity to make a practical contribution to the lives of young people and their families in our local area. 

“We know the funds that The Social Co. and Wingrove donate each year to the Greggs Foundation will always go directly to ensuring children receive a nutritious and healthy breakfast, which in turn helps to keep them focused on learning. Seeing the positive impact of the Breakfast Club network across the UK is a real asset to the charity and means we can be part of a successful programme which has been helping families in need for 35 years.”

In addition to receiving a nutritious breakfast, sponsorship also guarantees the school access to the Greggs Foundation Hardship Fund. The programme allows schools to tap into a fund to receive quick and practical help for families in need of supermarket, food vouchers or a range of home appliances.

Growing the network

One of the keys to the growth of the Greggs Foundation Breakfast Club programme across the UK has been developing new partnerships with businesses and organisations interested in delivering targeted support to schools and their pupils. Wingrove Motor Company and the Social Co are part of a growing network of 130 existing partners, helping to support hundreds of Breakfast Clubs throughout the UK. As part of The Greggs Pledge, the Foundation aims to grow this number even further to reach 1,000 Breakfast Clubs by 2023. 

So why get involved? Josh Parker admits he was no stranger to the challenges facing children and families in the North East when he left the area as a young student to study in Bournemouth.

Josh comments: “I didn’t intend to come back to the North East initially. I was happy living in Bournemouth and was studying for a different career path away from the family business. As time wore on, my desire to return grew but at the same time I became more focused on wanting to make a genuine contribution to the area I grew up in. 

“Newcastle and the region as a whole has such a mixed profile of privilege and deprivation and I have seen myself how this can affect prospects from a young age.  Through one of our charity partners at Wingrove Motor Company, I learned about the work of the Greggs Foundation and their Breakfast Club programme. I immediately wanted to get involved.

“A Breakfast Club sounds simple but the impact it can have on the children is huge. Yes, it offers the chance to have a nutritious breakfast, but it’s also an opportunity to socialise and learn with friends in a safe environment. The staff and children at Waterville Primary are fantastic, but we knew immediately that we wanted to deliver added value to the pupils beyond the Breakfast Club.  We got our heads together with the team at The Social Co. and came up with a fun and creative new project.”

Wingrove Motor Company and The Social Co. implemented a design challenge with children from Waterville Primary School to put a creative new spin on a van donated by Wingrove. Using template outlines of the van, the children used their limitless imagination to deliver a series of colourful designs to help brand a new Breakfast Club van. The winning designs were blended into a final wrap by the talented team at The Social Co. before the van was unveiled to the children.  

A member of The Social Co. adds, “Working with Waterville Primary School on a competition to create a new branded van was a great opportunity for our designers to work on a live design project with the children. Although a lighthearted competition, we really wanted to give the children a bit of insight into the creative and design process to deliver that all important extra value to our breakfast club.  With such great engagement from the children, we’re already working on new ways to work more with Waterville Primary on some exciting projects in the future.”

Are you interested in working with the Greggs Foundation to sponsor a Greggs Breakfast Club in the UK?  For information on how to become a Breakfast Club partner and help support children in removing hunger as a barrier to learning, please visit our partners page to learn more or contact Lynne Hindmarch at lynne.hindmarch@greggs.co.uk.