Membership Spotlight highlights the work of our member organisations and outlines how other individuals and NGOs can support them. This International School Meals Day, we are shining the light on Magic Breakfast who have now been a member of Together for three years.

By Finlay Allmond, Scotland Policy and Public Affairs Manager

No child or young person too hungry.

It seems like a simple mission, and in many ways it is. In Scotland, 13% of children and young people live in food insecurity. This amounts to around 130,000 young Scots, a population almost the size of Dundee, who are at risk.

We provide thousands of breakfasts across Scotland to children and young people living in disadvantaged areas. At the same time, we’re seeking to change the public conversation and ensure that politicians know what Scots already know, that breakfast can’t wait.

This International School Meals Day, Scotland is falling behind comparative countries in delivering school breakfasts. Not just other nations in Europe such as Sweden and Slovenia, but other parts of the UK. In Wales, primary schools can offer free breakfasts to all pupils and in England, the UK Government funded National School Breakfast Programme supports thousands of schools in disadvantaged areas.

Today, young Scots are going hungry due to empty promises. Later this year will mark three years since then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, committed the Scottish Government to offering breakfasts to every pupil in primary and ASN schools. Yet so far, not a single slice of toast funded by the Scottish Government has been buttered.

Charities like Magic Breakfast have the honour of representing and uplifting the voices of children and young people in Scottish policy making. That’s why we ensure that we understand the views of school staff, parents and pupils. Last year our What’s for Breakfast report was the largest study we’ve ever undertaken to amplify those voices of those we work with.

The lived experience of children, young people and their educators, form the backbone of the stories we share with policy makers both here in Holyrood and in Westminster. We believe that the hunger crisis in the UK is not an inevitability. It must be tackled to ensure a rights-based sustainable future for children and young people.

As members of Together (The Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights) we’ve been able to better embed a rights-based approach in our work. I wrote on how we see breakfast fitting in a rights-based approach to education in December for UN Human Rights Day.

The consequences of offering breakfast are immense.

We all know that poverty and deprivation is the thief of potential in society. Evidence shows that breakfast has demonstrable academic benefits at early primary level and for key exam years. Alongside the links to academic success, it is vital that children and young people are supported to access breakfast to ensure they have the chance to reach for their dreams.

Whether it is driving buses, teaching in a school, or coding a best-selling video game; children and young people have a right to fulfill their potential and not just a metaphorical right. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is clear in Article 29 that the Government has a duty to ensure the education system nurtures potential.

It is incumbent on the Scottish Government to fulfill their promise to young Scots. Young Scots like Maia* whose teacher told us her story.

‘Maia is 14 and comes from a large family who often struggle to make ends meet. Since Maia began having breakfast at school, she is visibly more settled for the day ahead. Breakfast in schools has also supported Maia in her timekeeping, ensuring she can access all her education.

Outside of the classroom school has seen the impact breakfast has had on Maia’s social skills with her recently joining a school football team. Both inside and outside the classroom, breakfast is helping foster Maia’s potential.’

Maia is sadly not unique, thousands of Maias exist the length and breadth of Scotland from big cities to tiny villages. Charity support like Magic Breakfast and already stretched local authority budgets simply can’t support every Maia. The Scottish Government can. Maia and her friends are waiting. 

*Names and identifying details changed.

You can find out more about Magic Breakfast via their website.

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