Chartwells to add free breakfasts to school food parcels

Chartwells has said it will be adding free breakfast to its food parcels for children eligible for free school meals, "fully funded" by the company in addition to providing lunch parcels "at cost".

The UK’s largest school meals caterer, part of Compass Group, hit national headlines this week after a mother posted a photo on Twitter of her free school meals bag, which was widely criticised.

Footballer and child hunger campaigner Marcus Rashford described the offering as "unacceptable", while prime minister Boris Johnson posted on Twitter today that the government has “made it clear to the company involved that this is disgraceful”.

Chartwells has since said it will refund the costs of free school lunch food parcels that did not meet "our usual high standards".

The breakfast will include bloomer, bagel, butter, yogurts, juice, milk, oats and fruit.

Charlie Brown, managing director of Chartwells UK, said: “In normal times we are inside schools cooking nutritious meals for children, and in many cases offering breakfast, so our absolute priority is to help our schools and families continue to eat well through lockdown.

“We acknowledge that when schools were closed it caused some local issues as we switched from meals to parcels. We have been listening to parents and working out how we can best use our resources to do more to help.

“From 25 January, we will be adding breakfast into the parcels which will be free of charge to schools for all children eligible for free school meals and we will continue this provision while schools are closed. We hope this will further support children with their learning through the day.”

Chartwells works with more than 3,000 primary schools, secondary schools, academy schools, independent schools, colleges and universities.