Government to announce £26m school breakfast club fund
2 min read
The Government will today announce a £26m fund for school breakfast clubs across the country.
The cash will benefit 1,770 of the most disadvantaged schools, with charities Family Action and Magic Breakfast overseeing the initiative, ministers said.
Education Secretary Damian Hinds declared: “A healthy breakfast can help fuel children’s concentration so they can get the most out of their school day.
“Children only get one chance at an education and they deserve the best, whatever their background.
"That is why we are giving more pupils in some of the country’s most disadvantaged areas the chance to go to a breakfast club.
“This investment will help raise education standards further and will make sure young people have happy, healthy childhoods.”
The plans come after the Government was criticised over rolling back its free school meal offering.
The right to free school meals previously applied to everyone who received Universal Credit, but under planned reforms kids in year three or above will no longer be entitled if their families earn £7,500 or above from work on top of their benefits.
According to Labour, some 1.1 million children will lose their right to a free school meal as a result.
However, a bid to block the changes by Labour was voted down in the Commons last week.
At the election the Conservatives pledged to swap the universal access to free school meals for a universal access to breakfast.
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