How it Began
In 2000, whilst researching for her book Change Activist Carmel McConnell came across a shocking report from the Child Poverty Action Group (www.cpag.org.uk). The report said that for one in four UK school children the only hot meal they receive each day is at school.
To find out more she talked to teachers to find out what this statistic meant in reality. They explained that the real problem lay at the start of the school day, when many children arrived having had nothing to eat (some since the previous lunchtime).
Their hunger left them feeling upset, tired and irratable, unable to settle or concentrate on their lessons. Teachers were routinely bringing in food to aleviate the children's hunger pains and help them concentrate on their morning lessons.
This was intolerable to Carmel, so she started delivering breakfasts to six schools in Hackney. Since then we have built up to delivering breakfasts to 1,000 children every morning of the school term.
Why we are needed
In a recent UNICEF report (see Research page) the UK ranked bottom out of 21 industrialised nations for child well-being. In response to that report Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, The Children's Commissioner for England said: "We are turning out a generation of young people who are unhappy, unhealthy, engaging in risky behaviour, who have poor relationships with their family and their peers, who have low expectations and don't feel safe."
There are many causes of poverty, but one way to help today’s children escape the trap is to give them good, nutritious food at the start of the school day so that they have the best fuel for learning.
The big numbers
* 3.8 million UK children are living in income poverty
* 1 in 4 children get one hot meal a day - their school lunch
* Many mothers will go hungry to enable their children to eat
* 350,000 children eligible for Free School Meals do not take them up
