Starting the day hungry impacts greatly on education, leaving youngsters unable to concentrate at school as they ache for something to eat. Sadly, this will be the case for many young people preparing to sit exams up and down the country this summer.
Children’s charity Magic Breakfast provides healthy breakfasts to more than 200,000 youngsters who arrive at school each day too hungry to learn and will launch its annual Fuel For Success campaign on May 1st. The campaign will not only highlight the effect that eating a nutritious breakfast has on children and young people’s educational outcomes, but it will also raise much-needed funds to support Magic Breakfast’s work fuelling minds and feeding those children who need it most.
Breakfast powers learning and directly impacts attainment. A study by the University of Leeds found that students who regularly eat breakfast achieve two grades higher in their GCSE’s than their peers who don’t.
This year’s Fuel For Success campaign is being supported by Daisy Green, D&D and Hawksmoor restaurants by adding a £1 voluntary donation to every customer bill throughout May and June. Just £1 is enough to provide three hungry children with a healthy, nutritious breakfast to start their school day.
Supporters can also make a Fuel For Success campaign donation directly through the Magic Breakfast website www.magicbreakfast.com/appeal/fuel-for-success-2023 helping the charity move closer to its vision that no child is too hungry to learn.
Lindsey MacDonald, Chief Executive of Magic Breakfast, said: “Breakfast is a crucial part of every school day but as young people get ready for exams we know that this is even more the case. At a time that is stressful enough, they shouldn’t have the extra worry of feeling hungry and should instead be able to focus entirely on achieving their potential. We know, sadly, that this is not the case for so many children, which is why Fuel For Success is so important. We are truly grateful to our restaurant partners, Daisy Green, D&D and Hawksmoor, who are working with us to highlight a healthy breakfast as an essential component of the school day and at the same time helping raise vital funds to support our work.”
Food insecurity is no longer a plight of the most disadvantaged families, with more and more struggling to put food on the table during the cost-of-living crisis. A recent report by the Food Foundation revealed it is rising at an alarming speed, with 4 million children in this country now at risk of arriving at school hungry each morning, increasing from 2.6 million in April 2022.
In 2022, Magic Breakfast’s own research has shown that 94% of partner schools believe that poverty has increased in their school community in the past year, and 81% believe that child hunger has increased, with almost all schools saying the cost-of-living crisis is the main driver behind these worrying figures.
Magic Breakfast has also seen food and fuel costs rise by 20% over the course of the last year, meaning that it costs 20% more to provide breakfasts to the same number of children.
For more details about Magic Breakfast visit www.magicbreakfast.com