Helping Magic Breakfast emphasise the rising need for school breakfast initiatives

The rising price of food and cost-of-living crisis has highlighted the importance for schools to offer support to children vulnerable to hunger, which involves eliminating barriers and reducing stigma around accessing help. The charity Magic Breakfast provides free breakfast to children in their partner schools and aimed to collect insights from pupils and parents to understand their experiences with school breakfast provision. The goal was to formulate enduring solutions to address morning hunger in children.

Approach

Qa’s mixed-method approach engaged parents and carers, as well as pupils from secondary schools, primary schools and special schools. The research used different techniques to be inclusive of younger children and individuals with disabilities or additional needs. In exploring the school breakfast provision experiences, discussions delved into the morning routines of children, existing school breakfast offerings, and the impact of eating, or not eating, a nutritious breakfast.

Outcome

The research findings and report have been widely used by the charity to lobby for change including in parliament and in their communications with donors to evidence the impact and value of Magic Breakfast’s offer. The report, which was informed by our findings, can be found here.

Becky Gulc Research Manager
becky.gulc@qaresearch.co.uk
01904 632039

Photography: Anastasia Shuraeva on Pexels