Charitable donation funds 21,000 school breakfasts

More than 21,000 free breakfasts are to be made available to school children following a donation from a charitable foundation.

The York Hungry Minds campaign has been given £55,000 by the Trekpaert Charity Foundation, which is part of Stockpaert, a Dutch social network company.

The funding will be used to provide pupils at Yearsley Grove and Fishergate with breakfasts over the next three years.

"We have a national scheme in this country which delivers free school lunches for children from deprived backgrounds, however this is above and beyond that and is delivering free school breakfasts to lots of other children as well," said Bob Webb, chair of York Hungry Minds Steering Group.

York Hungry Minds was set up as a pilot project in January 2024 in response to national evidence suggesting that providing children with healthy food can make a significant difference to school attendance and concentration.

"We did breakfast in one school and lunches in another [and] what we found is that breakfast provided the best bang for your buck basically," said Webb, who is the deputy leader of City of York Council and the executive member for education, children and young people.

"Children were getting fuelled up, they were getting into school on time because they had those breakfasts and that attendance and that attainment is really, really improving."

A total of 12 primary schools across the city are now offering free school breakfasts as part of the programme, with another school choosing to offer lunches instead.

York Hungry Minds estimate they will be able to supply over 21,000 free breakfasts following the donation from Stockpaert.

The company made the donation following a recent trip to the city.

"Last year we arranged our 11th trip outside our country, this time to York, meeting Mayor David Skaith for the first time," said John Reinerie from the company.

"We were able to discuss ideas for which good cause, as part of our Rotterdam student club's 55th anniversary, we could donate to."

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