About Us
Magic Breakfast’s mission is to ensure that no child in the UK is too hungry to learn. The charity is at the forefront of tackling the urgent issue of classroom hunger through nutritious, school-based breakfast provision and through campaigning for a permanent, legislative solution to the problem. Over the last 20 years we have worked closely with schools across the UK to target children at risk of hunger, providing them with a nutritious meal before lessons, without barrier or stigma, so that they are settled and ready to learn.
Magic Breakfast was founded by Carmel McConnell, MBE, after five London headteachers she interviewed for her book told her that pupil hunger in the morning was a significant challenge to teaching. Carmel started buying and delivering breakfast food to these schools, with remarkable results as the children’s concentration, behaviour, attendance and attainment measurably improved.
Today Magic Breakfast works with over 1,000 schools (primary and secondary as well as SEN/ASL schools and Pupil Referral Units) in England and Scotland, offering healthy breakfasts to around 170,000 children every school day.
Magic Breakfast’s model of breakfast provision is in continuous evolution and is able to adapt to each school’s individual circumstances. The charity was the sole winner of a small-scale government school breakfast club tender in 2014 then, in March 2018, the charity, in partnership with Family Action, won a further contract from the Department for Education to deliver a new National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP) to over 1,775 schools. At its peak the Programme reached around 375,000 children. The contract was extended several times but is due to end in July 2021.
Independent research carried out on schools taking part in the first DfE tender, funded by the Education Endowment Foundation, found that Y2 pupils in schools offering a free, universal ‘magic’ breakfast provision boosted their reading, writing and maths by an average of 2 months’ progress per year, compared to pupils in schools with no such breakfast provision. Further evidence of the far-reaching benefits of school breakfast provision for disadvantaged children was published in February 2021. Research by Pro Bono Economics, in partnership with Heinz and Magic Breakfast, showed that providing disadvantaged pupils completing Key Stage 1 in England/Primary 3 in Scotland with just one year of school breakfasts could generate long-term economic benefits in excess of £9,000 per child.
Magic Breakfast has an effective and scalable model of breakfast provision, but finds, in 2021 that its services are needed more urgently than ever to help ameliorate a child hunger crisis in the UK. Recently released government figures show that, pre-pandemic as many as 1.7 million children were living with food insecurity in the UK, at risk of hunger. This number is likely to have grown in the last year as families struggle with illness and job losses due to Covid-19. Research by the Food Foundation estimates that 2.3 million children had experienced food insecurity in the UK in the 6 months to February 2021.
When the pandemic hit and schools were only open to a small number of pupils, the charity quickly adapted its school-based delivery model to one that reached the most vulnerable children with a nutritious Magic Breakfast at home. Working with existing and new funders and food suppliers, the charity provided a lifeline to families struggling financially because of Covid-19 right through each school term and the longer holidays. It is now looking to return to a pre-Covid operational model, but with much more to offer to schools and pupils than before.
Magic Breakfast’s income has grown over 20 years to more than £5m per annum, including gifts in kind, and we have ambitious plans to continue our expansion. We are fortunate to be supported by amazing and loyal funders including Heinz, Amazon, Kellogg’s, Quaker, People’s Postcode Lottery and the Peacetrain Foundation.
Our work is delivered by over 70 team members who work with schools, manage our logistics, raise funds, ensure the food we provide meets government nutritional standards, measure our impact, influence government policy, communicate to our many stakeholders, build long-term relationships and strive to ensure that no child is too hungry to learn.
2021 is an exciting year for Magic Breakfast as we embark on our ambitious 5-year strategic plan and mark our 20th anniversary. Over the next 5 years we are aiming to increase significantly the number of children that we are reaching each morning in schools with high disadvantage across the UK and will continue to strive for a permanent solution to child morning hunger.
Our new CEO will join us at a pivotal moment. You will have the ambition and strategic ability to take Magic Breakfast forward purposefully through this transformative period.
Our Values
- Loving and child-centred
- Optimistic and persistent
- Catalytic and action based
- Supportive and collaborative