LONDON CHARITY MATTERS
MAGIC BREAKFAST
“Thank you - Magic Breakfast is incredibly grateful for the support of the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London.”
“A year 6 child stopped attending breakfast club because his parents could not give him the money every day. We spoke to him and told him to come every day, we would supply breakfast and let his parents know that he was entitled to a free space.” - Breakfast club coordinator
Magic Breakfast has been awarded £16,310 from the Metropolitan Masonic Charity and the Relief Chests of various lodges and chapters. W. Bro. Stuart Sherriff went to find out more…
T
he three year project which started in September 2012 has supported
Burbage Primary’s Magic Breakfast Club in Hackney which has 43% of pupils eligible for free school meals. Since the project started over two years ago, London Freemasons have provided 13,5000 breakfasts to children arriving at school too hungry to learn, every day 30 children attend the club. In September 2014, when the teachers
were surveyed, one third said they had seen evidence of malnourishment, with nearly 40% reporting noticing significant weight gain among pupils. The school project manager Harriet Green is working with the school to help them to reach more children coming to school hungry, including offering them events such as World Porridge Day and healthy bagel recipes. Since July 2014, they have almost
doubled the number of children they provide breakfasts to, delivering over 1.5 million breakfasts in 2014. They now work in secondary schools, Special Educational Need Schools and pupil referral units. Magic Breakfast has
undergone a period of vast expansion over the last three months. In July Magic Breakfast won a tender from the Department for Education to set up 184 new breakfast clubs in schools where 35% or more of the children are eligible for Free School Meals. Many of the schools have said that a lot of their children are suffering in the school holidays as they aren’t getting their free breakfast or free lunch and as a result coming back to school malnourished and not ready to learn. Magic Breakfast is working on a pilot
project in Lambeth and Croydon to set up a holiday hunger scheme ‘MagicBreakfast365’. The scheme will provide children from partner schools with cookery skills, exercise and meals to ensure they aren’t hungry in the school holidays. With the right funding, they hope to roll this out across the country in 2015-16. Magic Breakfast is campaigning for Universal Free School Breakfasts for all primary school children as they believe this would ensure no child would arrive at school too hungry to learn.
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WINTER 2014
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