Free School Breakfast

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about funding for free school breakfasts.

Families are the fundamental building blocks of our society and I believe we should support them to nurture the young. Even before COVID-19, over four million children were growing up in poverty and I am concerned this will increase as household budgets are stretched by rising costs of living, tax increases and cuts to social security. Child poverty is a pandemic of its own and Ministers must have a plan to end child hunger.

As you know, the Government has announced £24 million to continue its support for breakfast clubs for a further two years until July 2023. I share your concerns that this will not reach all children at risk of hunger, likely providing breakfast club support to just 4% of children, which in my opinion, is not good enough.

I believe breakfast clubs should be available to every child to help them recover the learning and social development they have lost during the pandemic. By offering a healthy breakfast, we get children ready to learn, give time for socialising with teachers and friends, and support their emotional wellbeing. Evidence shows breakfast clubs can also boost children’s educational attainment with positive impacts on reading and writing.

I am pleased Magic Breakfast is also supporting these calls, saying it believes a universal approach would help break down the stigma that can be associated with a child accepting free school food.

More generally, I believe we must put children at the heart of our national recovery. I am concerned the Government is only investing a total of £5 billion into children’s recovery, which is far short of the £15 billion its own expert adviser said would be needed.

I support calls for a £15 billion children’s recovery plan that would not only fund school breakfasts but also free school meals over the holidays, more extracurricular activities, quality mental health support, small group tutoring for all those who need it, development for teachers, and an Education Recovery Premium.

I hope the Government will listen and learn from the brilliant work Magic Breakfast is doing to improve the education and life chances of children nationally.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this important issue.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP