Aberdeen FC Community Trust (AFCCT) last month were honoured along with Aberdeen City Council, Active Schools and Community Food Initiatives North East (CFINE) for their work on the Food and Fun Partnership. The inaugural Principal’s Award for Outstanding Service to the Community was presented to AFCCT representatives Jenna McDonald and Carolyn Watt by the Duchess of Rothesay, Camilla Parker Bowles, as part of the installation ceremony of Aberdeen University President and  Vice-Chancellor, Professor George Boyne.

The Food and Fun Partnership was set up to help prevent school children going hungry during school holidays and help alleviate the burden on low-income families during that time. The programme is delivered at four different localities, Northfield Academy, Riverbank Primary School, Seaton Community Centre and Tullos Primary School.

AFCCT’s role in the partnership is to provide arts and crafts and to work with the children using a youth work based approach while the sporting activity is provided by Sport Aberdeen. CFINE provide the produce and ingredients for hot meals, cooked by Aberdeen City Council’s Facilities Management School Catering Service. Hot meals are provided three days out of the five, and on the other two CFINE provide a ‘build your own’ sandwich station for the children.

Speaking about the award, Community Coach Ross McNeil said; “It came as a bit of a surprise to us to be honest. The award was set up as part of Professor Boyne’s installation as Principal and Vice-Chancellor and he chose to recognise the Food and Fun Partnership

‘I think Food and Fun is a really good example of partnership working, it wasn’t just an award for the Community Trust, it was an award for the partnership as a whole, which was really good because it takes a lot of work to run a project of this scale on such a tight budget and with so many different partners.

‘It’s really good to get that bit of recognition and know that the project serves its purpose. This is the second award that the programme has received. It was named Community Sports Project of the Year at the Aberdeen Sport Awards in October of last year.