November 2011
The launch of the new Kellogg’s Corn Flakes campaign ‘Help give a child a breakfast’ went well on Tuesday 11th October with an event at Sacred Heart Primary School breakfast club in Islington, London.
Kellogg's unveiled a new report at the launch revealing that one in eight breakfast clubs have been forced to close their doors and ITV’s Daybreak came along to examine the issue in more detail.
Breakfast clubs provide a nutritious meal for children as well essential childcare for working parents, however, 3000 of these have now closed and more than half of the teachers surveyed (52%) said that budget cuts were to blame.
Of those breakfast clubs still going; nearly half (45%) think budget cuts will force their breakfast clubs to close unless other funding becomes available. This is despite Prime Minister David Cameron recently saying a child’s future depends on a good start to the day, with a healthy breakfast.
The report revealed the detrimental impact the closure of breakfast clubs could have according to teaching professionals across the UK. Almost two thirds of teachers (62%) believe that the closure of their breakfast club would result in lower grades in their school. Behaviour would also deteriorate according to more than half (52%) of the teachers and nearly all (98%) felt those students that had eaten breakfast were able to concentrate better in lessons that those that hadn’t.
Attendance (37%) and punctuality (51%) would also be negatively impacted according to the report and one in six (17%) teachers felt that certain children wouldn’t get breakfast at all if it wasn’t for the breakfast club.
Mr John Lane, head teacher from Sacred Heart Primary School in Islington, London said: “Breakfast clubs are a lifeline for many children but with budgets being tight they could sadly become an unaffordable luxury in future.
“If our club were to close, not only would that impact on teachers, who would have to contend with distracted pupils, and parents, from a childcare perspective, but it’s the children that would ultimately pay the greatest price.”
According to the research, a quarter of primary school teachers felt that the closure of their breakfast club would significantly inconvenience parents and Siobhan Freegard from leading online parenting organisation Netmums agrees.
“Breakfast clubs are a sanity saver for us mums – particularly working mums – because we’re pushed for time in the morning and we know our children are benefiting from a good breakfast that will help them learn and achieve. Many parents would really struggle for childcare if schools were to cut back on wrap-around services putting increased pressure on our jobs.”
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes has launched ‘Help give a child a breakfast’ and is pledging to make a donation to school breakfast clubs for every pack of Corn Flakes sold with the target of raising a minimum of £300,000 – which will provide one million breakfasts by the end of 2012.
Kellogg's has been supporting school breakfast clubs in the UK since 1998 investing £1.5million into setting up new clubs.
Bruce Learner, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Kellogg's, said: “We decided to launch this campaign to help existing breakfast clubs as we’ve had a constant stream of schools contact us to say their breakfast clubs are closing and we know what a vital service they provide to children, parents and teachers.”