Breakfast club programmes at more than 1,800 schools in England will be extended over the summer, the Department for Education (DfE) has announced.

The charity co-ordinators of the National School Breakfast Programme, Family Action and Magic Breakfast, will work with schools in disadvantaged areas to keep delivering breakfasts through July and August, the DfE has confirmed.

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The charities are making arrangements with schools on the programme as to how the provision can continue to be delivered. Options include food parcel collections or breakfast food drop offs for families in the programme.

David Holmes CBE, chief executive of Family Action, said: “Family Action and Magic Breakfast, as the providers of the National School Breakfast Programme, have succeeded in keeping this essential programme open and available to over a thousand schools and tens of thousands of children and families during lockdown.

“We are delighted to flex the programme delivery so that we can now also support many National School Breakfast Programme schools, children and families with access to nutritious breakfast supplies during the coming summer holidays.”

The extension of the breakfast club programme follows other measures to support disadvantaged children during the summer.

One of these measures is the Covid Summer Food Fund, which will provide children eligible for free school meals with a voucher to cover the summer holidays, a decision the government took following considerable public pressure in June. 

Children’s Minister Vicky Ford said: “Extending our popular and successful Breakfast Club programme over the summer holidays will mean thousands of children continue getting a positive start to their day.”