Emma Lewell, South Shields MP, Lindsey MacDonald, chief executive of Magic Breakfast, and Kelly Hudson, senior manager at The Beacon Centre all speak about the school's breakfast club provision.
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00:00Magic Breakfast is a charity we've operated for over 20 years and on a given day we provide
00:06breakfast to about 330,000 children and young people across England and Scotland. The reason
00:12why we exist is because this morning about one in five children walking through the school gates
00:16are at risk of being too hungry to learn and the learning that's lost because of that is just
00:21you know an absolute outrage and we are able to provide the support through charitable funds
00:27and support several schools up in the northeast and ensure that children get the right and best
00:34possible start to their day. Magic Breakfast provides a range of food items we call it our
00:39magic menu so everything from bagels to cereal, porridge, baked beans and we also provide schools
00:45with the advice and support that they need to optimise and deliver a stigma and barrier-free
00:50breakfast. We know that schools have so many things that they need to think about on a daily basis
00:54and so we're able to hopefully take some of the burden of organising and planning off their plates
01:00quite literally and help them to think about portion sizes, making sure the school is
01:05healthy, nutritious, complies with school food standards and as I say importantly means that
01:10it's not stigma or barrier kind of creating for families and children so it's always free
01:16and it's delivered in ways that work for the local schools. So I've been wearing my magic
01:20breakfast for as long as I can remember now and they were strong supporters of my school breakfast
01:25bill way back in 2021 and at that point we had over two million children in the country
01:33going to school hungry without a breakfast. The previous government's school breakfast programme
01:37missed around 86% of those children. Magic Breakfast have filled that gap consistently
01:44and through campaigning we've managed to get the government to roll out school breakfast
01:50later this year but people will have seen that I tried to get the government to even strengthen
01:55that further recently in the children and schools well-being bill because I think we need all kinds
02:01of models of breakfast provision because not all children fit one mould so Magic Breakfast can
02:06provide you know that variety and that kind of well for example the school we're in today
02:12you know not all children in this school or primary school age in the current school breakfast
02:18provision that the government's proposing to roll out is all for primary schools
02:22so we don't want SEND schools or PRU schools missing out on that school breakfast provision
02:29as well so we're always going to need that extra support from Magic Breakfast and other organisations
02:34so I'm just really pleased that the government have listened they're rolling this out but I think
02:38there's always room for improvement and I'll never stop until every single child that wants a school
02:43breakfast gets one regardless of their age and regardless of their geography. So what happens
02:47on the morning here the students all come in at the dining hall we'll have also provisions in
02:51classrooms for other students because sometimes it's a bit noisy in there so we like to have
02:55different classrooms the breakfast available staff sit with the students it's the first
03:00soft landing on the morning we check in with them check that there's been any issues any breakfast
03:06is available sometimes the students help each other making it and then we'll do on a night time
03:11on an after school club we make the overnight oats so that's prepped for them so on the morning
03:16they come in they know that's there so when they come in and they will chat they'll chat the staff
03:21they'll chat students because we know sometimes there's issues that happen outside of school
03:25so this on a morning they can get everything off the chest before they go into the classroom and
03:29deal with any issues but we'll also pick up if there's any issues that staff need that action
03:34or just reach throughout the child before they're going to learn.