The Government has announced schools in some of the country’s most disadvantaged areas will receive £26m in order to boost breakfast clubs after warnings of underfunding.
The education secretary Damian Hinds also said that the charities Family Action and Magic Breakfast will run the morning clubs.
Breakfast clubs are designed to ensure children have access to a nutritious meal before they start the day. They also serve as a childcare solution for parents who have to go to work at an early hour.
A report last September revealed nearly half of teachers feared their breakfast club would have to close over the next three years due to a lack of funding.
The future of school breakfast clubs: a funding crisis in the UK report, published by Kellogg’s, found 200,000 schoolchildren - mainly from the most deprived areas of the UK - were likely to lose access to a nutritional breakfast.
Today’s investment, which will be funded by the soft drinks industry levy, will benefit over 1,770 schools in some of the most deprived areas, including the Department for Education’s Opportunity Areas.
‘A healthy breakfast can help fuel children’s concentration so they can get the most out of their school day,’ said Mr Hinds.
‘Children only get one chance at an education and they deserve the best, whatever their background. That is why we are giving more pupils in some of the country’s most disadvantaged areas the chance to go to a breakfast club.
‘Paid for by the Government’s soft drinks levy, this investment will help raise education standards further and will make sure young people have happy, healthy childhoods.’