Government reveals new breakfast club programme partners

Four new partners have been unveiled to support the new primary school breakfast programme, with deals for schools to draw on exclusive offers from Magic Breakfast, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Weetabix.

Under the new scheme, the 750 Early Adopter schools enrolled in the programme will now be able to sign up for:

- access to Magic Breakfast's school ordering portal, offering a range of dicounted breakfast food options including delivery to schools. 

- free anytime delivery for orders from Morrisons

- a £200 gift voucher from Sainsbury's for every school on the scheme

- up to 15% off Weetabix and Ready Brek via selected wholesalers

The new partnerships are announced as a number of school leaders also express concern about the financial viability of delivering breakfast clubs including minimum 30 minutes of free childcare, based on the current funding arrangements.

The government has also announced plans to expand the programme to a further 2000 schools from April 2026, reaching another 500,000 pupils. 

In response, Barbara Crowther, Children's Food Campaign Manager at Sustain says: 

“All healthy, sustainable food sourcing offers that will help schools run brilliant breakfast clubs aligned with school food standards are welcome. However we are still concerned by the limited approach taken by DfE, and overall lack of vision for what a great breakfast progamme could be.”

 

“Fundamentally, schools should not have to be scraping around for discounts and deals – funding ought to be sufficient to support schools to work flexibly, cover their costs and buy healthy and sustainable food from wherever they choose.

 

“We urge DfE to also use this test and learn phase of the breakfast club programme to support schools who want to work with local dairies, bakers, farmers, and community hubs, and to align this national scheme with the government’s pledge to drive local, sustainable and British food procurement. Schools are such important players in their communities and local economies, and children learn so much more about food provenance, growing and healthy eating when connected with local producers and suppliers. It’s an opportunity that should not be missed.”

Sustain member Magic Breakfast is offering early adopter schools the most comprehensive package of support for their breakfast clubs, building on its experience working with schools in both Scotland and England. 

Rhian Thompson, Director of Service Delivery, Magic Breakfast, said:

“Each school morning, Magic Breakfast works with over 1000 schools, making school breakfast available for hundreds of thousands of children and young people.

“I am especially pleased that Magic Breakfast is now a proud partner of the free breakfast club programme. 

“The expertise we have built in areas including food, delivery and breakfast provision in almost every type of school and community will be a valuable asset we can bring to the programme. At Magic Breakfast, we are excited to participate in this test and learn phase and help schools to deliver their free breakfast clubs.”

Launching the new partnerships, the Education Secretary, Bridget 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.

“We need schools to play their part too, getting ready to join the free breakfast club scheme from next year, or acting now to cap branded uniform items to keep more of parents’ hard-earned cash in their pockets.

“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.”

Sustain in the press on this story

Schools Week