Feeding Brighter Futures
)
For over 25 years, The Greggs Foundation has offered UK primary schools support for their children and families. Since our first Breakfast Club opened its doors in 1999, we have now grown our school network to help more than 75,000 children at over 1,000 schools every single day.
Now called Feeding Brighter Futures, our schools programme incorporates Breakfast Clubs as well as additional support through after school clubs and holiday club provision. We give schools the freedom and funds to choose nutritious options and activities that will help children overcome barriers and provide new opportunities for learning. We also make sure children attending Breakfast Clubs have freshly baked bread for a slice of toast donated by their local Greggs shop.
We know every school is different. Feeding Brighter Futures supports small groups to over 100 children every day. However, the core principle is the same. They are a safe space for children to eat, spend time with their friends, engage in learning and enjoy fun activities at the beginning or end of the school day, and during school holidays.
What we can offer schools
We prefer to let our schools choose the right nutritional mix of foods and activities to suit their pupils, so we supply grants each term to meet the needs of the school. Our school clubs are a place to have fun as well as fill tummies so many clubs often expand their offering with fun activities, including games or sports for extra enrichment opportunities. After school clubs are a safe and secure place for children to finish their school day but also provide the time and resource for children to engage in additional learning and homework using school equipment.
We also have funding available to assist with any start-up costs related to cooking equipment and cold food storage.
Additional benefits of Feeding Brighter Futures
All schools in our network get access to our hardship programme. This programme awards in excess of £1m in grants every year and supports children and families in financial crisis with food and clothing vouchers, as well as beds and home appliances including ovens, fridge freezers and washing machines.
In 2022, we launched a new education programme with charity Rethink Food, to deliver one million hours of education into schools. This focuses on issues of food security, active lifestyles, healthy eating and sustainability and has a range of resources for teachers to use in school via the free Agents of Change multimedia programme. This programme is available to all schools in our network and will be running until July 2026.
Education is one of the most impactful ways to deliver long-term change
We're always looking for ways to add value to our schools. The schools in our network welcome the opportunity to have dedicated educational resources which can complement areas already touched upon in the existing curriculum.
Agents of Change
Agents of Change is a bespoke educational resource created by Rethink Food for the Greggs Foundation. It introduces a range of key topics in a fun and engaging way for primary school children in year 3 and 4.
To help schools retain flexibility in how to deliver each module, the Agents of Change has been created as a multimedia programme around four key subject areas, including:
Food security
Active lifestyles
Healthy eating
Sustainability
Kobi Nazrul Primary School
Before attending, a pupil would come to school and be quite unsettled, demanding a lot of attention from the teacher and disrupting the flow of the morning routine. They would actively seek interactions with adults. Since attending, they’re more settled at the start of the school day; they’ve typically had significant interaction with adults before entering the classroom, resulting in them being more ready to learn by the time class starts.Teacher feedback from a Breakfast Club school
Easing into the school day at Bishops Primary School
What are the benefits to your school?
There are so many benefits to being part of Feeding Brighter Futures
Food security
Knowing that you will receive food means children are secure in their food intake for the day. Knowing that they won’t go hungry can instill a greater sense of trust and enthusiasm for attending school in pupils.
Focus and attention
Its easy to understand why it can be hard to focus in a busy classroom environment, even more so when you can feel your tummy rumbling. Hunger is such a huge barrier to learning. This is one of the key disadvantages we focus on – we want to give children the resources to thrive in their school life and reach their potential.
Support for working parents
School clubs can help parents take the stress out of the working week and improve job security knowing you can meet the demands of a working day. We estimate around 70% of the children attending our clubs have at least one parent or guardian working. Knowing their children are safe can really help to manage that morning rush and ensure children are in school on time and ready to learn.
Healthy and nutritious food
We give schools the funding freedom to choose what their pupils would like to eat. Meaning they get a free, healthy and balanced option to suit their own tastes.
Role of our partners
We have over 160 partners and individual supporters who sponsor a number of our schools. This financial support from the business community is a wonderful way to connect businesses with local schools. Our commercial partners frequently develop a very supportive relationship with schools, often creating design competitions, delivering careers advice and workshops or involving pupils in key business milestones.
Partners are a hugely valuable part of the work we do here at the Greggs Foundation. To learn more about how some of our partners benefit our school network, visit our news hub. If you are interested in becoming a partner of the Greggs Foundation, visit our partner page for a more detailed introduction, or contact Lynne Hindmarch.
A busy morning at Larkspur School
Would you like to join our network?
Our waiting list is temporarily closed to new schools, but please keep an eye on our social channels for details on when the waiting list will reopen for applications.
The majority of our primary schools are located in disadvantaged areas where our support is needed the most. Many schools also have a high proportion of children who are eligible for free school meals.
To learn more about eligibility criteria, you can find more information in our FAQs.