Feeding Brighter Futures
Just months after celebrating 25 successful years of our Breakfast Club programme, we’ve been making some exciting new changes to support greater opportunities for children across the Greggs Foundation school network.
To reflect these changes, from April 2025, the breakfast club programme will be called…..Feeding Brighter Futures.
Feeding Brighter Futures presents an opportunity for the Greggs Foundation to expand on the success of breakfast clubs. This schools-focused support programme will be offering extracurricular activities across even more of the school day, from breakfast to after school and into the school holidays.
Whether it's providing a safe space to play, engaging in additional learning, or trying out new sports and hobbies, we want to ensure equal access to enrichment beyond the classroom for all children that need it.
Why are we changing?
When Greggs funded its first Breakfast Club at West Walker Primary School in 1999, it was to ensure school children received a nutritious start to their day. Over the past 26 years, the programme expanded to reach over 1000 schools, supporting more than 75,000 children daily.
The success of breakfast clubs in also improving attention, attendance, and punctuality has contributed to the government pledging free breakfast clubs through a new government-funded programme due to begin trials this year.
A small cohort of English primary schools will trial the new funded breakfast programme in an early adopters scheme starting in April 2025 – with a wider rollout expected over the next two years.
The funding commitment by government presented an opportunity for the Greggs Foundation to engage with our school network and look at other areas we could support children. The response from schools was almost unanimous – greater access to after school and holiday club activities could have a positive impact on children and families.
Feeding Brighter Futures has been aligned with these school needs. We will still support our network of Breakfast Clubs as the government transition schools over to the new, funded programme. However, we will now be looking beyond the morning to ensure children get access to better opportunities, both after-school and during the school holidays.
Feeding Brighter Futures will continue to support all current Greggs Foundation breakfast clubs for as long as needed. We will be running a series of pilots for after school and holiday club funding with schools until 2026, when we anticipate schools will be able to start applying for the wider programme.
All 1000 schools currently in the Feeding Brighter Futures network will still have access to the Greggs Foundation hardship programme. Meaning schools can apply to receive hardship grants in the form of clothing or grocery vouchers, household appliances or beds to alleviate the impact of poverty in times of financial crisis. However, during this period of transition, our school waiting list will remain temporarily closed as we focus on the 1000 schools in our network.
Tracy Lynch, Greggs Foundation manager comments: “This is such an exciting time for the future of The Foundation. For 26 years we’ve ensured thousands of children can access a free breakfast at one of our clubs, and now we’re able to offer a support package which covers even more of the school day.
“The feedback from our school network was clear. Too many children were unable to access extracurricular opportunities due to financial constraints, or schools were not able to provide a mix of activities or after-school support. Giving children those safe spaces to learn, play, socialise or develop new hobbies has always been a key part of our support for schools. With Feeding Brighter Futures, we’re able to give children access to even greater opportunities to unlock their future potential.”
For more information on Feeding Brighter Futures and the opportunities for schools, please visit the Feeding Brighter Futures page