Parents are becoming increasingly reliant on breakfast clubs to feed their children, as food inflation continues to rise and family incomes to stagnate. The Government has even committed £3.15m of funding, as part of its School Food Plan, to offer a healthy breakfast to children arriving at school hungry.
A survey of 3,000 school support staff in June by trade union Unison revealed that more than half (55 per cent) have seen a rise this year in the number of children relying on breakfast clubs.
With that has come a sharp increase in the number of schools wanting to set up clubs. Magic Breakfast, a charity that delivers free healthy breakfasts to 240 UK schools with more than 50 per cent of pupils eigible for free school meals, now has 160 schools on its waiting list, up from 130 in March.
Founder Carmel McConnell says the charity has also had to increase the amount of food it supplies to exising breakfast clubs. Last month alone, the charity delivered a third more bagels (86,976), twice as many bowls of cereal (56,500) and triple the amount of porridge than in September 2012.
TIME AND MONEY
'An extension of poverty is causing an increase in the number of children accessing school breakfast clubs,' explains Ms McConnell. 'Food prices continue to rise while wages remain at the same level as 2008. Families are having to make savings and this often means cutting back on food, leaving children hungry.'
According to research by the Child Poverty Action Group in August, the cost of living rose by 25 per cent between 2008 and 2013.
Lack of time is another factor. 'Families are time poor,' adds Ms McConnell. 'Employed parents have less job security and are working long hours or holding down more than one job. Unemployed parents on benefits are spending their time searching for work. A lot of older children attending our breakfast clubs are looking after their younger siblings as their parents have to leave early to start work.'
A poll by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in March found that of the 164 school staff surveyed more than three-quarters said that pupils attend a breakfast club because their parent or carer has to go to work early and needs to leave them at school.
'Another reason why a child may not receive a healthy start to the day is simply because their parents lack nutritional awareness,' explains Ms McConnell.
BENEFITS
School staff claim that without breakfast, pupils find it hard to concentrate. Research commissioned by Kellogg's this month, based on a poll of 762 primary and secondary school teachers, revealed that more than a quarter have seen children fall asleep in the classroom due to a lack of food or drink.
Louise Nichols, executive head of Kingsmead Primary School in Hackney, says her school's breakfast club makes a huge difference to the 80-odd children who attend.
'The children really enjoy coming to our breakfast club, which puts them in a better place to learn and ready to start the school day,' she explains. 'After eating breakfast they can go outside and play sport with our football coach. It not only gives them the opportunity to eat a healthy breakfast, but they can socialise with their friends and let off steam before school starts.'
Eating a healthy breakfast every day also has positive effects on children's academic performance. According to Magic Breakfast figures, 88 per cent of schools reported that their breakfast clubs improved children's attainment and achievement, 93 per cent said they increased children's concentration and energy in class, and 74 per cent reported an improvement in pupils' behaviour.
CHALLENGES
Despite the increase in demand for clubs and a greater recognition of their potential benefit to children, a growing number are having to shut their doors due to budget cuts.
A Freedom of Information request by Sharon Hodgson, Labour MP and then shadow minister for children and families, last year revealed that 40 per cent of schools in 128 local authorities reported a fall in the number of breakfast clubs. The main reason for the closures is thought to be cuts to schools' budgets and ringfencing on funding for 'wraparound services' being lifted.
According to Magic Breakfast, it costs just 22p to buy a healthy breakfast for a primary school pupil, amounting to £42 for a year. However, the biggest challenge for many is staffing costs.
Kingsmead Primary School, which has a high percentage of children on free school meals, uses £15,000 from the Pupil Premium to pay for the extra seven and a half hours of staffing a week. But costs are rising with the popularity of the club.
Ms Nichols says, 'We can't rely on volunteers, because who would want to work at 8am? We don't have people in the community with the time and energy to commit to volunteering at the school's breakfast club.'
Magic Breakfast, which set up its London Sustainability project last year, is working with 50 primary schools in seven of the most deprived boroughs to find long-term financial solutions to running independent breakfast provision.
The charity also relies on donations and support from companies that have chosen to sponsor breakfast clubs. All Star Lanes, a chain of 'boutique' bowling alleys in London and Manchester, adds an optional 28p to food bills that goes straight to Magic Breakfast, while Quaker Oats and Tropicana have provided porridge oats and juice to Magic Breakfast schools since 2009.
BIG COMPANIES
A number of large companies and organisations have also launched their own school breakfast club programmes in response to growing concerns about children going hungry.
Greggs Foundation, the charity run by the bakery chain Greggs, started funding breakfast clubs in 1999, and now runs around 230 clubs across the UK, providing more than 11,000 children with breakfast each day. All clubs are free and open to all children. This year alone, Greggs Foundation has opened 12 clubs, with more than 50 primary schools on its waiting list.
Kellogg's is another company leading the way, having helped establish and support more than 1,000 breakfast clubs over the past decade. Its partners include the Trussell Trust, which works to empower local communities to combat poverty, and Forever Manchester, a UK foundation that matches donations to community groups and local people passionate about making a difference.
Kellogg's and the Trussell Trust have distributed two million breakfasts throughout 370 outlets in the UK through their Give a Child a Breakfast campaign.
MORE INFORMATION
- Magic Breakfast, www.magicbreakfast.com
- Kellogg's Breakfast clubs, www.kelloggs.co.uk/en_GB/our-community.html
- Greggs Foundation, www.greggsfoundation.org.uk/breakfast-clubs
- For links to breakfast club and other nutrition news stories, visit: www.nursery-world.co.uk/recipes
CASE STUDIES
South Bank Community Primary School, Middlesbrough
Children at South Bank Community Primary School in Middlesbrough pay just 10p a day for a breakfast of cereal, toast and milk, thanks to a £400 grant from Kellogg's. Since the new lower charge was introduced, numbers attending the school's breakfast club have soared from about 15 to 45.
South Bank was also one of 200 schools across the country to receive cereal donations from Kellogg's during SATS week, enabling the school to offer their Year 6 and Year 2 pupils a week of free breakfasts.
Children attending the breakfast club have the chance to take part in a variety of activities before the school day begins, which is proving beneficial as well as popular.
Marie Clarke, the school's pastoral co-ordinator, who runs the breakfast club, says, 'We're in an area of low socio-economic deprivation, so to be able to offer breakfast is a huge benefit to the children and has impacted on their punctuality and attendance. It provides the children with a nutritional breakfast in a safe and supportive environment, so they are academically and physically ready to learn.'
Grange Park Primary School, Sunderland
At Grange Park Primary School in Sunderland, the breakfast club is funded by Kellogg's and money from the Pupil Premium. All children are welcome to attend the club but must pay £1 a time.
Headteacher Pauline Wood says that more than 30 children attend the club each day. 'Some children come because it is fun, others because parents can drop them off before they go to work.
'Food is just one of the attractions of the club', explains Ms Wood. 'Children can play Wii Fit and pool, and do karaoke, arts and crafts.'
After the breakfast club, while registers are being taken at the start of the school day, nursery children as well as those in reception are offered rounds of toast,for which parents pay £1 a term.
