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07 October 2020

Pre-pandemic, six children in every class of 30 were living in a family experiencing food insecurity...

Classroom hunger drives an educational attainment gap between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. It's one of the reasons why children from disadvantaged backgrounds leave secondary school over 18 months behind their better off peers and are less likely to go on to further or higher education or find highly paid, secure work…

That is why Magic Breakfast is working with Feeding Britain and Labour MP Emma Lewell-Buck on a school breakfast bill. This builds on, and scales-up, current government funding for school breakfasts. It would guarantee all schools with high levels of disadvantage the support they need to provide a free school breakfast to children. Schools would receive extra funding to cover the costs of food, deliveries and staffing.

If successful, the bill would ensure that all children in England start the day settled and ready to learn, allowing every child in the country to reach their full potential. It would boost educational attainment and contribute to greater economic productivity and growth.

We’ve been inspired by the recent groundswell in public support for tackling child hunger, which is in no small part down to Marcus Rashford's amazing activism on the issue. Now we need to translate that support into action. The bill, which is due to be presented to parliament next week, is supported by over 50 MPs from all parties. We urgently need to continue to grow this number for the Bill to have a chance of passing.

Read the politics.co.uk article in full.