Labour’s free school breakfasts plan is a corporate-captured cop-out of crumbs

The basic funding for free primary school breakfasts the Labour Party is currently offering is just 60p per pupil. That has resulted in schools taking part in the pilot either pulling out or paying the rest from existing budgets.

Free school breakfasts: a pittance!

Paul Bertram, a headteacher at Buxworth Primary School, said:

We discussed it as a governing body and we just couldn’t afford to run at a loss. If this is the best they can offer, they are going to struggle with putting the policy nationally across the whole of the country

Labour plans to roll out free school breakfasts for all pupils from April. Up to 750 schools are taking part in the pilot.

One school leader said the current scheme has funding “so poor it won’t cover food, let alone staff”.

Corporate capture

The nutritional value of the free school breakfasts clubs is key. Presently, corporations are promoting unhealthy food in breakfast clubs. Greggs has opened at least 1,000 breakfast clubs in schools in the UK. Studies have shown Greggs food to be high in calories, saturated fats and low in nutrition. Kellogg’s has also sponsored school breakfast clubs for more than two decades. Its products are high in sugar.

In December, 38 doctors, researchers, and others signed a letter to the government calling for an end to the “stealth marketing” of unhealthy foods in schools via breakfast clubs.

It states that a

BMJ investigation shows that action urgently needs to be taken against stealth marketing by this industry that is rife in schools and early years settings—and yet such marketing falls outside the scope of the government’s advertising restriction plans. Unhealthy food and drink is one of the three biggest killers in the UK (alongside tobacco and alcohol). This industry is being permitted to target the youngest in our society, through breakfast clubs and so called “healthy eating” campaigns and “free” materials, in schools and early years settings. Evidence shows that exposure to unhealthy products increases consumption both directly, and via adversely affecting the social norms, cultural values, and beliefs that underpin food
behaviours.

A “policy development” charity, funded by companies including Coca Cola, Mars, Nestlé, and McDonald’s, is also influencing food provision and education in schools. Head of food policy at the Soil Association Rob Percival said:

Just in principle, an organisation sponsored by McDonald’s, Mars, and Nestlé shouldn’t be within 100 miles of children’s food education

The status quo for school breakfasts

The government isn’t currently providing any fully-funded free school breakfasts clubs as a legacy from the Conservative administration, although 12% of schools receive subsidies for the first meal of the day. But it only applies if 40% or more of the school’s pupils are facing income deprivation.

The scheme doesn’t promote a high standard of universalism for essentials nor does it account for the many less well off children who live in more affluent areas.

In the UK, nutrition issues begin before children start primary school. A December report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) highlighted that a quarter of households with children under four are experiencing food poverty. That’s the number of households, not the number of children.

The EPI authors pointed out that food poverty has negative psychological and physiological outcomes. It can lead to obesity, tooth decay, and mental health issues for parents. They note than when children under five experience food poverty they are more likely to have worse educational outcomes.

In fact, research shows that children from the lowest income families are five times more likely to experience poor academic achievement.

In a meritocratic society, children should have reasonably equal external inputs for their development, whether that’s food, healthcare or education. The current system isn’t fit for purpose – and neither are Labour’s free school breakfasts.

Featured image via the Canary