Our Response
Autumn Budget
We welcome the Government’s acknowledgement and steps to address child poverty and hunger by tripling investment in breakfast clubs, announced in the autumn budget. But we want to see school food throughout the day tackled.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves shared her vision to ensure every child has “the very best start in life and the best possible start to the school day too” after announcing a tripling of investment into breafkast clubs, funding them in thousands of schools across the UK.
Whilst this announcement is a good start and a positive recognition of the need to invest in school food to ensure children’s futures, we’re calling for even more change moving forwards.
We’re drawing up a How To guide for schools to serve up brilliant breakfasts, but we think it’s important to look beyond breakfast. So watch out for us shouting about the need for mandatory training for school kitchen teams as well as for reforms to the school food standards. Plus, we’ll continue to make the case for expanding eligibility to free school meals to families in receipt of Universal Credit, because otherwise breakfast may well be the only meal some children get to eat in school.
To read more about our work calling for change, read our manifesto now.
Naomi Duncan, Our Chief Executive says: “While breakfast support is valuable, and we really welcome the acknowledgement that hunger impacts learning, it doesn’t negate the need for children to access a proper lunch – too many chidlren living in poverty will still miss out. We hope future budgets address this as a priority.”