Our Stories:
Meet Ian

“Even before Healthy Holidays was a thing, DAZL (Dance Action Zone Leeds) was supporting families in the community for years.  DAZL has been ensuring children have a healthy breakfast and food in the holidays, and It felt like a natural progression for us to be part of the programme. DAZL’s not just about physical activity – wellbeing and healthy eating is at the core of everything we do. 

This funding has had a massive impact on families. Two streets from here (DAZL HQ, Middleton) there’s a family who we delivered food to over Easter half-term. Single parent with four children, so totally reliant on school meals and breakfast clubs to feed them.  Just with that one food parcel it was one less thing to think about. It’s an absolute life line for some and we delivered over 100 food parcels in that holiday period. 

The programme has really helped us define what we offer and it’s given us a clear structure and focus on how to deliver benefits to the community. The children really enjoy it and they get to learn about food.  Healthy Holidays has allowed us to run other initiatives in conjunction with other organisations, we’re aiming for 300+ families with food, and 500+ families with other activity programmes.” 

DAZL are a Dance and Health Charity, offering fun, relevant and accessible dance opportunities to children and young people. Through Leeds Community Foundation’s Healthy Holidays programme, they engaged children in a range of activities including dance and multi sports and provided nutritious meals and food parcels in their area.