This week Magic Breakfast are supporting includem’s Simply Scran campaign as part of Scotland’s Challenge Poverty Week. I sat down with their Policy Officer, Snow Cutis-Kolu, to discuss the importance of breakfast in schools as part of a healthy approach to food across the day. You can listen to the full podcast below.
The following music was used for this media project: Music: Building Happiness 17Sloop [Loop] by MusicLFiles. Free download: filmmusic.io/song/9885-building…iness-17sloop-loop License (CC BY 4.0): filmmusic.io/standard-license Artist website: cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles
At Magic Breakfast, we obviously love breakfast and love sharing how important it can be. In the schools that we work in, breakfast becomes part of the community of the schools. In Scotland, around 4,000 children and young people are able to access their magic breakfast every morning. In many of our partner schools this is enjoyed together with their peers and in some cases with their teachers. This time as part of the school day is a chance for children and young people to come together within a different community to that which they experience at home and experience the joy of food. After this, everyone is equally ready to start learning, creating a positive environment filled with potential.
This approach to community also supports school staff. We hear every day from partner schools about the impact that spending time on breakfast can have. It’s more than just food, it’s more than just measurable and quantifiable impact, it’s the impact on communities and young lives that helps drive us. Like this school in Scotland who told us:
“The school breakfast provision has had a positive impact on the young people that attend it. Young people have commented that they have been ‘less hungry’, ‘not alone in the morning and I have something to eat’, ‘eaten healthier.’”
But what could change look like in Scotland? Breakfast provision in schools isn’t controversial. Parties across Scotland’s Parliament at Holyrood agree that action is needed as part of a national approach to tackling child poverty. We’re excited play our party in making that action happen, that’s why we’re committed to working with the Scottish Government and Scotland’s four parliamentary parties to ensure a hunger focused, barrier, and stigma free breakfast is available in school to all young Scots. Promises exist, policy is needed.
Whilst we love breakfast, we know the value of access to nutritious and enjoyable food across the day. That’s why we’ve helped draft and signed onto includem’s open letter to Scotland’s First Minister. The letter has four key asks to tackle hunger in Scotland’s communities. This includes ensuring that no child or young person is too hungry to learn.
Take a listen to me and Snow on the podcast above and stick around until the end to hear what our favourite breakfast is.
