“Answer to our prayers”: North Sheffield school joins government-funded breakfast club initiative
A local school is celebrating being selected for the free breakfast club scheme in a nation-wide regeneration plan.
High Green Primary School is one of three schools in Sheffield chosen in the early adopters scheme, as a part of the government’s Plan for Change.
The scheme, launched on 24 February, aims to drive parents return to work and ensure their children have a nutritious breakfast to start their day.
High Green has just 197 students, and the school expects over 60 students will attend the daily club, providing 30 minutes of free child care and a healthy breakfast.
The primary school already runs a daily breakfast club priced at £4.50, for students in year one to year six, starting 7:30am.
Ms Smales said: “We've had a breakfast club running for quite a while, and that's been really positive.
“But it was clear that the parents wanted it to be longer, and we've been looking for ages how we can accommodate that.”
Thanks to the new financial aid, the school can now offer their club to the parents of its foundation stage (F2) children in the summer term.
Making breakfast affordable
Dawn Aldridge, 57, has been High Green’s business manager for eight years.
As well as using the funds to organise a new club, Mrs Aldridge has lowered the cost of their original paid breakfast club service.
She explained: “Because of the pilot funding, I’ve reduced our costs by the amount I get per child, which is 60p per student, so all parents are getting an element of free care.
“I can see a rise in deprivation, there’s a lot more within the school and we want to address that.”
According to Census Data UK, 35% of residents in High Green and Chapeltown are affected by at least one deprivation factor.
This can include being unemployed, not pursuing higher education, living in homes without central heating, or having considerable health issues.
The new breakfast club is open to all students in the school, but Mrs Aldridge has reached out directly to the families who need this vital service the most.
High Green provides arts and crafts, 'wake up and shake up' dance sessions, and has a reading corner to help children prepare for a day of learning.
High Green's community fridge
Debbie Roberts, 58, of Rokeby Road, Sheffield, has been a lead volunteer at High Green's community fridge for just over three years.
Credit: Debbie (on right)
The fridge, funded by Hubbub, works to reduce food waste and provides the surplus of supermarket food to those in need, free of cost.
Its Sheffield branch is one of 150 community fridges across the country, who have partnerships with large supermarket chains like Co-op, Tesco, Waitrose, and Asda.
Ms Roberts recognised High Green as the area in Sheffield that would benefit the most from a community fridge, and helped found it.
She said: "We know that High Green is an area of high deprivation, so the financial need is absolutely there.
"We have certainly noticed in the three years that we have been running that more families need more."
Although the community fridges' main goal is to reduce food waste rather than combat food poverty, it has been instrumental in helping parents feed their families during the cost-of-living crisis.
The 'Plan for Change' Initiative
750 schools in the UK were selected in the early adopters scheme, giving them time to plan the club's launch in the summer term.
Schools that have a 50% enrolment in their summer term club will receive an additional £21,400 in funding for the next academic year, according to the Department of Education.
Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary, said: “Breakfast clubs can have a transformative impact on the lives of children, feeding hungry tummies and fuelling hungry minds, so every child begins the day ready to learn.”
The government says the new Children's Well Being and Schools Bill will cap uniform costs and expand the breakfast clubs in order to help break down barriers for children in poverty.
Addressing child poverty and food insecurity
Child poverty expert at Manchester Metropolitan University, Professor Gabrielle Ivinson, said the scheme will create a community in schools and will help break down the stigma surrounding children living in poverty.
Miss Ivinson noted that breakfast clubs are a positive step, but warned they must be part of a larger effort to address poverty after years of austerity under the previous government.
She said: "The hunger is only one element of being poor."
Child Poverty Expert with Manchester Metropolitan University
According to the Department for Work and Pensions, food insecurity in children across the UK has risen to 18% over the past three years. This figure revealed that 7.5m children now face food insecurity.
Parents with low and very low household security status, where the uncertainty in the ability to buy and prepare food is very high, has also increased significantly.
The 2% rise in children using of food banks show that low-income families have been unable to cope with the cost-of-living crisis.
The breakfast club initiative is expected to help struggling parents save £450 per year in food costs per year.
"The hunger is only one element of being poor"
What makes a nutritious breakfast?
The Department of Education has recommended schools in the programme serve wheat biscuits, porridge, yoghurt and fresh fruit to provide a balanced and healthy breakfast to children.
Dr Robert Akparibo, a global child food security expert at the University of Sheffield, stressed the importance of a balanced breakfast to bridge the nutritional gap seen in children from low-income households.
He said: “If a school meal is providing a diet that does not contain any of the necessary components, then we are just providing food to children to fill their belly rather than address nutritional deficiencies.”
Dr Robert Akparibo
Dr Robert Akparibo
High Green Primary School plans to offer yoghurt, non-sugary cereals, fruit, and eggs on toast, which it already offers to students attending their paid breakfast club.
Mrs Aldridge said: "We have always prioritised healthy foods over anything cheaper despite our tight budget, it always has to come first."
With the plans now in place, High Green Primary School hopes to provide long-term support for both students and their families, ensuring that no student starts the day hungry.
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