Kellogg’s has been working with a community learning charity called ContinYou since 1998 to promote the benefits of breakfast clubs in schools and other community settings.
What is a breakfast club?
A breakfast club is a place where children and young people can have a balanced nutritious breakfast in a safe and sociable environment. Most breakfast clubs are in schools and tend to run for an hour before school starts. Whilst breakfast is the focal point for the club, breakfast clubs can have a number of other benefits including:
- Helping improve attendance and punctuality.
- Helping with concentration levels during the morning and therefore academic achievement.
- Providing good quality childcare.
- Being a good place where everyone in the school community, parents, children, teachers and other local organisations can interact in a relaxed environment.
Over the last 10 years we have invested over £1m promoting the benefits of breakfast clubs. We’ve done this in four main ways:
Serving breakfasts: Back in 2000 we distributed £165,000 to 250 breakfast clubs to help them start and expand breakfast club provision. Between 2006 and 2007 we helped develop breakfast club services at 100 schools in England, Wales and Scotland. These clubs serve around 1m breakfasts each year. We don’t supply Kellogg’s food to these clubs.
Providing support: We fund ContinYou so that it can provide the best support possible to breakfast clubs all over the UK. This support includes the best on-line resource available and a hotline if you have any questions about setting up or developing a breakfast club.
The breakfast club register: In May 2008 ContinYou and Kellogg's established the first ever National Breakfast Club register. Breakfast clubs in either school or community settings will be able to share resources and knowledge with other local providers.
Spreading the word: In 2006 the benefits of breakfast clubs appeared on the back of 22 million cereal boxes. Each year we run the Breakfast Club Awards which showcase best practise in breakfast club provision and recognise the great work that teachers, parents, volunteers, school staff and children do to run breakfast clubs.
Breakfast Facts
- One in four children eat chocolate and crisps for breakfast1 and UK children are spending £500 million a year in local shops on the way to school on food.3
- One in five children currently skips breakfast – that’s 3 million children each day.4
- Children who skip breakfast are more likely to snack on calorie dense products later in the day and are more likely to be obese.3
- 52% of parents find it difficult to get their children to sit down and eat breakfast in the morning.1 The main reason given for skipping breakfast is lack of time.5
- Breakfast is the most rushed meal, and the cheapest meal of the day (averaging at 46p). However, nutritionists recommend breakfast should make up a quarter of your daily nutrient intake.6
1 Raising Kids Survey, January 2006
2 Doctor Patient Partnership Survey, May 2001
3 Sodexho School Meals and Lifestyle Survey, 2005
4 Office for National Statistics, 2004
5 Kellogg’s Family Health Study, 2004
6 Future Foundation Report, The Future of Breakfast, 2004