DuPont helps provide 30,000 free meals for families across North

DuPont Maydown has continued to show its support for local communities in the North-West and across the North of Ireland by supporting the Healthy Summer campaign developed by the Urban Villages Initiative (The Executive Office) and Business in the Community Northern Ireland (BITCNI).

The Healthy Summer campaign is an initiative which helps community groups in the five Urban Village areas spanning Derry and Belfast to support families that would mostly access free school meals during term time.

Often when families don’t have the support of free school meals during the summer months it can result in them missing meals.

Community representatives across Urban Village areas highlighted it as a major challenge facing families and causing poor nutrition and learning loss in children.

Maydown-based DuPont, along with eleven other companies across NI, made donations totalling £28,000 which was in turn matched with £30,000 from the Urban Villages Initiative to provide 30,000 meals for families in need.

Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Executive Office, Mark Browne said: “The Healthy Summer programme has provided over 30,000 meals to families living in Urban Village areas who rely on free school meals during term time, and may struggle to provide healthy and nutritious meals during holiday periods.

“I would like to thank our partners Business in the Community, the local businesses who supported the programme and the local community organisations who have worked together to deliver the programme.”

DuPont Senior Manager, Paul Kirkpatrick said: “DuPont are proud to be amongst the twelve companies who supported the Healthy Summer initiative in 2019.

!As a company, we are committed to supporting the local community and investing in the welfare of our children and young people, which is why we feel that campaigns such as Healthy Summer, which has provided 30,000 meals to families in need, are so important.

“I would like to take the opportunity to commend the Urban Villages Initiative, BITCNI and the other companies who took part in Healthy Summer for their efforts and I look forward to building on this year’s programme and doing more to help address these key social issues”, he added.

For more information on the Healthy Summer programme, email [email protected]

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