Lois’s great food a drawcard for Midnight Basketball
THE great food prepared for Grafton's Midnight Basketball competitions is one of the biggest drawcards for the program says the national CEO Tess White.
Grafton
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GRAFTON Midnight Basketball has one of the best drawcards in the country says CEO Tess White.
In Grafton on Wednesday for a meeting with local volunteers, Ms White let on she was mightily impressed with the meals turned out for the 60 players plus volunteers for the eight Friday nights of the program.
Ms White put it all down to volunteer chef Lois Robinson, whose meals she described as “the best in the country”.
“The meals are fantastic,” she said. “Lois prepares not one, but three different types of really healthy meals, which the kids love.”
Ms White said scepticism over food was one of the major hurdles each Midnight Basketball committee had to overcome.
“People just don’t believe kids will eat the food,” Ms White said. “But we’ve found if it’s good and tasty and the salads are crisp and crunchy, everyone absolutely loves it.
“I don’t know how Lois does, to prepare such different types of food and to make it all so delicious and healthy.
“Then, after the games are over, there are racks of salad rolls for the kids to have on the bus trip home.”
She said meal times at Midnight Basketball were one of the big lessons they were able to give the kids, without them even realising it.
“They get to sit down at a table in their teams and enjoy a meal together,” she said. “It’s a lot like a family meal time where everyone sits down together and talks about their day.”
There are plenty more lessons the participants of Midnight Basketball will learn at the program.
Ms White said some of the lessons are taught explicitly in the lifestyle coaching the participants sign up for when the take part.
Others come from being part of the program and joining in.
“I don’t know how many times you see in one of our grand finals, it’s going to the wire and one of the ‘super star’ players passes the ball to one of the younger players to make the winning shot,” Ms White said.
“When you see that sort of thing, you know know what we’re doing is working.”
Ms White said the the enthusiasm of the Midnight Basketball Grafton Volunteer Community Committee was another reason for the success of the program here.
“When you see the calibre of the people involved and the amount of work they do behind the scenes, it’s really no surprise it works so well here,” she said.
Midnight Basketball will tip off in Grafton again on Friday, August 5 for an eight-week program. Contact Rebekah Wall on 0405 244 552 for more information about taking part or becoming a volunteer.
Originally published as Lois’s great food a drawcard for Midnight Basketball
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