Government invests £7m into school breakfast club pilot

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced plans for a school breakfast club pilot that will take place across 750 schools during the summer term.

Primary aged pupils have been invited to take part in the £7m government initiative, which will fund free breakfast clubs between April and July 2025.

The Department for Education will work alongside the selected schools to better understand the needs of caterers, parents and pupils in advance of a national roll-out.

The scheme aims to reduce the number of students starting their day on an empty stomach and address rising food insecurity among children.

It comes after London mayor Sadiq Khan promised to offer free school meals for primary aged children in state-funded schools over the next four years.

There have been consistent calls for greater access to free school meals from education caterers such as Sodexo and Chartwells.

In 2022, the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA), which represents 80% of the UK’s school catering services, said there needed to be an “immediate” increase in funding for the scheme.

Chefs Jamie Oliver and Tom Kerridge have also urged caterers to get behind the campaign to ensure all children on Universal Credit are given free school meals.

This year, LACA also called on the government to standardise school meal funding across all four UK nations.