Children start the day with nutritious meal as Greggs Foundation opens new Breakfast Club at Sunderland school

The new club will enable 50 children to enjoy a healthy breakfast consisting of a choice of toast, low sugar cereal, fruit, yoghurt, juice, and milk.

In addition to ensuring the pupils are best prepared with energy for the day ahead, the clubs also provide an opportunity for children to develop their social skills and build relationships with teachers and classmates.

Deputy headteacher Louise Hindmarch said: “Due to the additional needs of a lot of our pupils, we find that some arrive at school without having breakfast.

“With the funding provided by the Greggs Foundation, we are now able to run a breakfast club each morning, to ensure not only our pupils have a good breakfast to start the day, but also an opportunity to further develop their independence, communication and social skills with each other.”

The average Breakfast Club costs £3,000 to set up and run for an academic year.

In May 2021, Greggs ran its latest annual Breakfast Club Appeal, during which over £120,000 was raised by Greggs staff and customers in just two weeks to support the cause, enabling the Greggs Foundation to provide 480,000 children with a free breakfast.

Lynne Hindmarch, Breakfast Club Manager for the Greggs Foundation, said: “No child should ever start their day without breakfast, which is why we’re delighted to be opening a new breakfast club at Harry Watts Academy.

“Through breakfast clubs such as this, we’re able to support over 46,500 children each day nationally, and new openings like the one at Harry Watts Academy are helping us to continue heading towards reaching our target of serving 70,000 breakfasts each school day by 2025.”

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Customers at Greggs stores can now donate a free breakfast to a child in need by simply telling a member of staff they want to “donate a breakfast for 25p” when making a purchase.

All donations will go towards extending the programme.

Harry Watts Academy is a special school with a particular focus on education provision for children diagnosed with autism.