The government has announced a boost to its breakfast club programme as it launches new partnerships with Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Weetabix, and Magic Breakfast.
The move will see early adopter schools in the scheme benefit from discounts and free deliveries from today.
Labour’s breakfast club scheme provides school pupils at up to 750 participating schools access to a free, universal breakfast club. At the start of the scheme, teaching unions warned that the money provided by the government would not be sufficient to cover the cost of breakfast clubs.
To mark the new move, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson attended Scott Wilkie Primary School in Newham, east London on Thursday.
Ms Phillipson said: “We’re rolling out free breakfast clubs, and now we’re going further. By joining forces with some of Britain’s most loved food brands, we are making our offer bigger and better – backing our schools, supporting families, and ensuring every child gets the best start in life.
“This government is driving change and delivering national renewal – and we won’t rest until we have broken the link between a child's background and success.”
The government has said its scheme frees up to 95 hours per year for working families and puts around £450 a year back into their pockets.
Ms Phillipson told The Standard: “It makes the start of the working day much easier for parents. It allows parents to make choices about working the hours and jobs that suit them.”
She added that the government will revisit the distribution model and the funding at a later late before it moves to the next phase of national rollout.
Under the new announcement, Morrisons will offer schools a free anytime delivery pass and a dedicated online landing page to streamline ordering. Sainsbury’s will offer a one-off £200 gift card for each school and Weetabix will offer a 15% discount on the cost of Ready Brek and Weetabix.
Children’s hunger charity Magic Breakfast is also offering a range of discounted products and an online ordering platform.
Some schools had suggested the programme was inciting additional costs for schools that had to pay for provisions out of their own pocket.
Another concern included an inability by schools to cope with the staffing requirements of breakfast clubs.
Ms Phillipson said: “We’ve worked with schools to make sure they’re able to put in place the staffing that’s needed, but ahead of the national rollout, we’ll make sure schools have got what they need to make it a success”.
The scheme started in April 2025, with Labour now pledging to triple investment in breakfast clubs to more than £30million in the 2025-26 financial year.
Ms Phillipson said that the clubs also enable “socialisation for children as well as a good healthy breakfast”.
“You’ll see often when you visit breakfast clubs that children are taking part in physical activities and that is how we can support children to be healthy.”
Zaina, 30, is a single-parent whose three children attend the Scott Wilkie breakfast club.
She said: “I fled domestic violence and suddenly became a single working mum. I have three children who now come here. The breakfast club at the school is very, very important especially for single working parents.
“There were days when they were eating in the car on the way or not getting enough food”
She added: “I have a fruit allergy and so now they can eat fruit without me breaking out in hives.”
A pupil at Scott Wilkie Primary School told The Standard: “Some people can’t afford food and breakfast so they can come here and eat for free!
“There’s always different fruits and you can spend more time with your friends.”
Headteacher of Scott Wilkie Primary School, Ms Farhathafza Quayum, said: “Our breakfast club has a home atmosphere for children who are reluctant to come to school. It helps get children in school, they try new things, and it gets them fed.”
She added that for parents who previously fell short of the threshold for free breakfast, they are now able to offer breakfasts and morning care provision for free.
The breakfast club scheme is separate to the National School Breakfast Programme, which sees the government subsidise the cost of breakfast club provision in selected state-funded schools in disadvantaged areas.
Ms Phillipson is also calling on schools to limit branded uniform items ahead of the cap coming into force in the Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill.
Critics of the bill have said the cap on branded uniforms will just spike the cost of branded items.
Ms Phillipson said: “I think it’s a reasonable limit to make sure that children are arriving smarter but we’re not making children and their families poor as a result of high cost items.”
