Wesleyan Foundation has reached the fantastic milestone of funding over half a million breakfasts for hungry schoolchildren through the Magic Breakfast charity. Wesleyan has donated £145,500 to Magic Breakfast since 2019, including £53,000 so far this year.
Magic Breakfast provides healthy breakfasts to children and young people in the UK who arrive at school too hungry to learn, as well as providing expert support to their schools.
Nathan Wallis, Chief of Staff at Wesleyan, said: "As a mutual with a strong ethos of care, we want to support projects through the Wesleyan Foundation that matter to our customers, many of whom are teachers.
"Magic Breakfast does incredible work helping children start their school day with the nutrition and energy they need to learn and develop. We’re proud to support them as they continue their vital work to ensure no child is too hungry to learn."
Ali Roberts, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Magic Breakfast, said: "The current cost-of-living crisis is really stretching family finances and this is sadly having a knock-on effect on the number of children and young people at risk of going to school hungry. When a child is hungry, they cannot learn and this can impact their education and life chances.
"We are incredibly grateful to the Wesleyan Foundation for their generous donation which is enabling us to provide free, nutritious breakfasts to pupils across the UK, giving them the chance to reach their full potential."
Independent research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has shown that pupils in primary school receiving a nutritious ‘magic breakfast’ boosted their attainment at Key Stage 1 by an average of two months’ additional progress over the course of a year, compared to children in schools with no such provision. Alongside this, 94% of Magic Breakfast partner schools report that breakfast provision has a positive impact on energy levels, boosts concentration and 93% report increased readiness to learn.
In 2017 Wesleyan launched Wesleyan Foundation as part of their commitment to supporting great causes that are important to their members and the communities in which they live and work. The Foundation has since donated over £5m and supported more than 440,000 people across 500 different UK charities, community groups and social enterprises.