Championship Coventry continues changing lives this Easter
With no rugby for a year, you might have thought life at a Greene King IPA Championship club would grind to a halt.
With no rugby for a year, you might think that life at a Greene King IPA Championship club would grind to a halt.
Although players were allowed to train under the elite sport exemptions, sports clubs and external coaches couldn’t deliver sessions and projects in schools and, with no fans in stadiums until mid-May at the earliest, you have all the ingredients for the quietest year on record.
Coventry Rugby management had other ideas, however. The artificial pitch at Butts Park was still open for pitch bookings until the winter lockdown, and function suites served up Sunday lunches and other rugby-related events when the club was able to do so.
Some community work switched online, with the popular Rugby and Reading programme becoming Rugby and Reading: Home Edition, taking educational experts’ and players’ advice to parents to help improve children’s reading and activity levels.
The most wide-ranging impact has, however, come via Project:500 with Coventry Rugby Foundation fully engaged with the city’s disadvantaged families.
Launched in summer 2019, Project:500 gave youngsters a week of fun and games at Butts Park, along with nutritious breakfasts and lunches, a Coventry Rugby replica shirt and a season ticket. It went from strength to strength backed by supporters and local businesses.
Fast forward 18 months and the campaigning of Marcus Rashford highlighted the food poverty faced by families nationwide, and Christmas 2020 saw Project:500 become Feed:500.
As well as 40 children (the maximum allowed on the pitch at any one time) having a week-long multi-sport activity camp, their families received two weeks’ food parcels, thanks to the support of a Coventry Morrisons branch. These included fresh meat, vegetables, pasta, bread, breakfast cereals and, thanks to Mirius, all the cleaning products to keep a home a Covid-free environment.
This expanded in the February half-term. With no multi-sport camp possible, thanks to a Rugby and Reading: Home Edition book bank, support from Charter Savings Bank, and supporters’ donations, youngsters were able to receive a few books, too.
“With no end to the pandemic, the lockdown and the worsening impact on families, there is an increased need for Feed:500 to continue. We extended into the February half-term and then the Easter break,” said Coventry Rugby Foundation manager, Hal Sparke.
“We were taken aback by the response during the Christmas period from families who would otherwise have struggled to put healthy food on the table. Many were very emotional and grateful for the support, highlighting the need for us to continue initiatives like Feed:500.
“The book bank gave families something a bit different in February. Rugby and Reading has been one of our most popular programmes and the book bank saw us adapt in the pandemic era when we’re sadly not able to go into schools in person.
“Coventry Rugby has been at the heart of the city’s community for nearly 150 years, and through the Foundation we are able to expand this beyond the rugby pitch.”
