The Healthy Breakfast Club (HBC) will be a safe, sociable space where children can enjoy a healthy and nutritious breakfast whilst setting them up for the day with fun, games and food! According to the local school in El Cocal 80% of the children attending don't eat breakfast. Providing a regular healthy breakfast will improve concentration levels and behaviour, which will allow them to learn more in school.
El Cocal is an underprivileged community on the outskirts of Quepos. The community itself is an isolated and partially illegal settlement, home to Costa Ricans as well as many immigrant families who come to Costa Rica in hope of a better life. The families in El Cocal struggle daily to make a living from the tourists visiting Manuel Antonio National Park. There is more often than not, not enough to go around and many families don't have the resources to provide 3 meals a day to their chilren.
We are starting with a few kids that attend the GVI programme in the community centre with the aim of expanding to the school once we are established. We hope to have enough funds for a year in order create continuity. We will also give workshops on healthy eating and teach kids how to make a healthy breakfast themselves, without spending lots of money. We will also plant local fruits and vegetables so the children can grow and eat their own food.
The HBC will, not only, provide nutrition but also create a sociable and structured environment to set the kids up for the day. Making children sit together and eat, encourages them to chat, make friends, learn to share and cooperate, something that many of the children in El Cocal are often not exposed to. It is proven that breakfast helps concentration and behavior, and by simply giving a child some brain food before they start their day can dramatically improve their learning and thus future.
