10 August 2021

Last summer for the first time we were able to offer holiday breakfasts to all our partner schools across the country. We saw the impact and vowed to continue holiday provision throughout the pandemic.

School closures during lockdowns meant we had to change the way we operated. We had to swiftly find ways to reach children who were no longer at school. Initially we provided schools with food that they could distribute themselves, but we were then lucky enough to be supported by Amazon and so began, discreet, stigma free deliveries to homes ensuring children had breakfast food whilst they were unable to attend school.

Thanks to Amazon we have now delivered more than four million free, healthy breakfasts to children at their homes across the UK since May 2020.

We know that children whom we have traditionally supported during term time are likely to be at risk of hunger in the holidays too. So, we have been delighted to be able to continue providing breakfast food during the holidays as part of our Covid19 response.

Learning loss over the summer break is something that teachers have always been aware of, a problem that is exacerbated by poor diet and hunger in disadvantaged areas.

A 2020 YouGov survey of teachers, commissioned by Magic Breakfast, found 64 per cent of respondents from schools with high levels of disadvantage noticed pupils falling behind academically after the summer holidays.

Headteachers have previously told us that after the holidays some children return "Asking for food throughout the day, asking for seconds at lunchtime.” Suffering from tiredness with no energy. Children have a "lack of concentration” and are “unable to focus back into routines".

This year we have offered free summer breakfast packs to children in all our partner schools. The packs contain low sugar cereals, porridge and bagels.

One headteacher in Somerset emailed us to say “I cannot tell you how grateful we are that we will know those children will be receiving at least some good quality food when school is closed for 6 weeks over the summer”

Hunger doesn’t take a holiday and thanks to our wonderful supporters, this year over 1 million Magic Breakfasts are being distributed to around 35,000 children across the UK during the summer holidays. Thank you