Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However, many children in Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay are missing meals due to food poverty.
Statistics show that there is a huge attainment gap between children who grow up in poverty and their peers. As well as all the physical consequences of poor access to food such as malnutrition and difficulty concentrating, children who go hungry typically achieve less in school and are more likely to suffer with mental health issues as they grow older.
The national lockdown has only exacerbated this issue, as children can no longer access breakfast clubs and school meals. Recent reports have shown that the provisions in place to address this are varied in quality and often extremely lacking.
Canterbury Food Bank has therefore begun to offer "Breakfast Packs" for local schools to distribute amongst children in need. Each pack contains milk, juice, tinned fruit and cereal and costs £2.50 per child for a week.
We are calling on the local community to help us fund this new project and ensure that no hungry child goes without breakfast.