12 January 2021

YardNine supports hunger charities, Magic Breakfast and Fareshare

YardNine has chosen to support two charities doing some fantastic work.  The pandemic has hit some harder than others and with charities missing out on so much of their usual support, they need help more now than ever.

The charities we have supported are Magic Breakfast and Fareshare.

Hear how both charities are tackling hunger in different ways below.

Magic Breakfast

The issue of child hunger and its impact on educational attainment and wellbeing is more pressing than ever before. Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, 4.1 million children were living in poverty, with as many as 1.8 million school children at risk of starting their day hungry. As we enter the largest UK recession on record, we are deeply concerned by the growing numbers of children starting their day having had nothing to eat.

Morning hunger presents a significant barrier to learning. 80% of teachers report that a hungry child is more likely to be restless, unhappy, lethargic, distracted or disruptive in lessons. By the time children leave secondary school, economically disadvantaged students are 19.3 months behind the average in terms of educational attainment.

“We did have a couple of children who really did cry with the hunger. They didn’t know what was wrong with them. They would say that their tummy was sore. But when you asked them ‘When did you last eat?’ or asked if they’d had anything that morning, you found they hadn’t.”

–   Patricia McGowan, Head of Abercorn Secondary, Glasgow

Magic Breakfast is a pioneer and leading light when it comes to tackling the urgent issue of child morning hunger in the UK. Through our network of 480 Primary, Secondary, ASL/Special Educational Needs schools and Pupil Referral Units, we are currently providing healthy, nutritious breakfasts to over 48,000 vulnerable children each morning. This provision is targeted to reach children most at risk of hunger. For a school to be eligible for our support, at least 35% of pupils should be recognised as eligible for Pupil Premium, with many of our partner schools exceeding 50%.

For over 20 years we have developed a best-practice model that combines food aid with expert support. We know that the hungriest children are often the hardest to reach, which is why we work with each school to identify hunger, remove stigma, and to educate children, parents and carers, and school leaders on the importance of a nutritious breakfast – improving educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged children as well as the whole school community.

During Covid-19 school closures and the summer holidays, pupils at Magic Breakfast schools were able to continue accessing Magic Breakfasts thanks to the charity’s take-home breakfast packs consisting of 10 days’ supply of beans, bagels, cereal, porridge and milk vouchers. Now that schools have reopened, their Magic Breakfast provision has renewed importance.

Independent research, funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, found that Year 2 pupils in schools providing a free, nutritious ‘magic’ breakfast boosted their reading, writing and maths by an average of two months’ progress per year, compared to pupils in schools with no such breakfast provision.

Find out more here Magic Breakfast  

Fareshare

FareShare is a UK-wide charity fighting hunger and food waste. We redistribute good food that would otherwise go to waste to frontline charities and community groups that support vulnerable people.

For more than 25 years FareShare has been working with the food industry to identify quality, in date surplus food that can be redistributed to charities.

FareShare reaches over 1,900 towns and cities, providing enough food to create almost 46.5 million meals a year and

supporting almost a million people every week.

The 10,942 charities and community groups that receive food through FareShare provide a lifeline to vulnerable people, including homeless hostels, children’s breakfast clubs and lunch clubs for older people. By receiving food through FareShare, these organisations are better able to provide nutritious meals alongside life-changing support.

Food poverty in the UK

• 4 million people in the UK, the equivalent of the entire population of London, don’t get enough food to eat¹
• People in food poverty are those who don’t have continuous access to affordable, nutritious food. It includes those on low or no income, but also encompasses people affected by physical or mental illness, addiction, relationship breakdowns and so on.

Food waste in the UK

• 9 million tonnes of food is wasted every year in the supply chain in the UK²
• Wrap estimates at least 250,000 tonnes of surplus food from the food and drink industry could be redistributed to feed people each year. This is enough for at least 650 million meals for people in
• FareShare currently handles approximately 7% of the surplus food available in the
• Last year FareShare redistributed enough food 5 million meals. The majority of this food is fresh, such as fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products.
• ‘Surplus’ applies to any food that does not have a commercial outlet but is within date and can still be consumed. It has become surplus for various reasons including overproduction, errors in forecasting, incorrect labelling and damaged

Find out more here FareShare