School breakfast club

Breakfast clubs generally enhance both academic performance and behavior, especially for children whose parents might not otherwise be able to afford to provide them with regular meals.

Between the wars the Oslo breakfast became famous worldwide; claims were widely reported that it helped children fed on it grow several inches taller than they would otherwise.

Changes in gender roles and more demanding workplaces meant an increasing number of women were no longer able to look after their children until the start of school.

[3] After the lasting global inflation in the price of food that began in late 2006, there were increased efforts to set up new breakfast clubs, in part due to greater awareness of children who arrived at school suffering from hunger, a condition that reduced their ability to concentrate and sometimes led to disruptive behavior.

A 2011 report by Kellogg's found that the number of breakfast clubs had increased to over 20,000, though also that several thousand had or were at risk of closure due to lack of funds.

[4] [5] In 2013 a survey of 552 staff for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that just over half those questioned said their school provided a breakfast club.

A May 2020 report stated that 621,000 British children had been accessing free breakfast clubs before the pandemic, yet only 136,000 were receiving an alternative during the lockdown.

[1][4][5][6] Various studies in both the U.S. and Europe, some dating back to the 20th century, found that breakfast provision at schools boost pupil's educational attainment.

[17] Some studies also found evidence of negative behaviour effects, and even that in certain circumstances a majority of children were unhappy with breakfast clubs: when either there was insufficient care given to ensure the clubs were stimulating enough to avoid boredom, or when access had been restricted just to poorer children, which could leave participants feeling picked on.

[22] Federal spending on the school breakfast program in the United States also increased three percent in FY 2019 compared to the previous fiscal year.