Sainsbury’s has announced an investment of more than £1.5 million to help children and families access nutritious food around the school day, timed to coincide with the start of the new school year.
The largest share, £1 million, goes to two charities working on food insecurity in schools through the retailer’s partnership with Comic Relief. Magic Breakfast and Rethink Food will each receive £500,000 to expand their reach and, in Sainsbury’s words, help develop long-term solutions to the barriers some families face in accessing good food.
Magic Breakfast will use its share to provide free, nutritious breakfasts to school children in both primary and secondary schools, targeting those most at risk of hunger. The funding will also help schools run breakfast clubs in a way that meets the needs of their pupils, with the aim of increasing uptake.
Rethink Food will put its £500,000 towards growing its National School Pantry Network, which helps schools in areas of high deprivation give families free access to nutritious food to take home, alongside wider support. The charity says thousands of schools already provide informal food support to families, and it wants to build a sustainable model that lets schools respond to rising need without adding to the pressure on staff.
More gift cards for free breakfast clubs
Sainsbury’s has also stepped up its support for the Department for Education’s free breakfast clubs programme. The 1,400 new schools enrolled onto the scheme are now eligible for a £200 Sainsbury’s gift card, an investment of £280,000. The retailer says this takes its total spend on the programme to more than half a million pounds, and means more than 2,700 schools will have been supported since launch.
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