10th January 2019

A report by the House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee, published today, is calling on the government to take urgent action to tackle hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in the UK, especially among children. The Committee are recommending a Minister for Hunger is appointed. 

Magic Breakfast welcomes the findings of the Environmental Audit Committee, in particular setting clear targets to reduce unacceptably high levels of UK child hunger and food insecurity. As the leading charity dealing with classroom hunger Magic Breakfast also welcomes the suggestion of a new Minister for Hunger, to enable rapid progress in solving the problem. 

Magic Breakfast delivers healthy breakfasts to schools facing significant pupil hunger, shockingly more than half a million children start their school day too hungry to learn. While significant investment in school breakfasts has already been made by the government through the National School Breakfast Programme, there is still an alarming additional number of children who are unable to learn in UK classrooms, as a direct result of hunger. 

Magic Breakfast's founder, Carmel McConnell MBE, said: "I think it’s a great idea to have a Minister for Hunger, we’d be delighted to work alongside them to support the government’s efforts to rapidly reduce the unacceptable high levels of hungry children in U.K. schools. No child should start their school day too hungry to learn". 

NOTES

Magic Breakfast is a charity tackling child hunger in the classroom every school day, providing healthy breakfasts to children in disadvantaged areas of the UK who arrive at school too hungry or malnourished to learn.  We have over 480 partner schools, feeding breakfasts to over 40,300 children. In addition, we are in partnership with Family Action contracted to deliver the Department for Education's National School Breakfast Programme to a further 1,770 schools, which is projected to reach as many as 200,000 children at risk of hunger in the mornings. 

Magic Breakfast is backing the charity's founder, Carmel McConnell MBE (who won the 2018 Women of the Year Campaigner Award), to be the UK Zero Child Hunger Tsar to support a Minister for Hunger to achieve zero hunger as an urgent priority.  

LINK TO ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT COMMITTEE REPORT