South Shields MP visits The Beacon Centre to see the school’s breakfast club provision
Emma Lewell MP has visited The Beacon Centre to see the school’s breakfast club provision.
The Member of Parliament for South Shields, Emma Lewell, visited The Beacon Centre, on Temple Park Road, on Friday morning (April 4) to get a first hand look at the school’s breakfast provision.
The breakfast club has been provided to the school by Magic Breakfast, a charity that provides breakfasts to young people across England and Scotland.
Magic Breakfast aims to reduce the impact of “lost learning” through hunger by ensuring that children can get a free, healthy breakfast when they arrive at their school.
The South Shields MP has been campaigning alongside the charity for a number of years and has praised the work that they carry out at The Beacon Centre and other schools across the North East.
Ms Lewell said: “I’ve been working with Magic Breakfast for as long as I can remember and they were strong supports of my School Breakfasts Bill back in 2021.
“At that point, we had over two million children across the country going to school hungry - with the previous government’s school breakfast programme missing around 86% of those children.
“Magic Breakfast have consistently filled that gap and through campaigning, we’ve managed to get the government to roll out school breakfasts later this year.
“I tried to get the government to strengthen that even further because we need all kinds of models of breakfast provision because not all children fit one mould, so Magic Breakfast can provide that variety.
“The current breakfast provision that the government is proposing to role out is just for children at primary school age, but I don’t want SEND or PRU schools missing out on this so we’re always going to need that extra support from Magic Breakfast and other organisations.
“I’m really pleased that the government have listened and are rolling this out but I think there is always room for improvement and I’ll never stop until every single child that wants a school breakfast gets one.”
Lindsey MacDonald, the chief executive of Magic Breakfast, has explained to the Shields Gazette how the charity works with schools to ensure there are no barriers or stigmas attached to the breakfast provisions.
She commented: “Magic Breakfast provides a range of food items from things like bagels to cereal, porridge and more.
“We also provide schools with the advice and support that they need to optimise and deliver a stigma and barrier free breakfast.
“This means that we can work with schools to think about things like portion sizes, making sure that the school is healthy and nutritious, as well as complying with school food standards.
“Our breakfasts are always free and it is delivered in ways that work for the local schools.”
Kelly Hudson, senior manager at The Beacon Centre, has revealed the positive impact that the breakfast provision is having on the school’s pupils.
She added: “On a morning, the students come into the dining hall or their classrooms and staff sit with the them while they have breakfast.
“It is the first soft landing on a morning and it means that we can check in with them.
“Some of the students help make the breakfasts, so at our after school club, we make our overnight oats so they are ready for the next morning.
“The pupils will chat with each other and our staff so it means that they can get everything off their chest before they go to class.
“It also means that we can pick up on any issues, especially on things that might be happening outside of school, or just reassure them before they go in learning.”
You can find out more about the work that Magic Breakfast carry out by visiting: https://www.magicbreakfast.com/.