Manchester school partners with Tesco stores to to support breakfast club provision

The school receives free surplus food from stores and makes it available to pupils at the school, ensuring that children get a healthy start to their days.

William Hulme's Grammar School receives the food as part of the Community Food Connection surplus food scheme, which involves local Tesco stores and food redistribution charity FareShare.

The Community Food Connection scheme ensures that surplus food from Tesco is given to charities and community groups, whose volunteer members then distribute it to the public. Across the UK, Tesco redistributes two million meals to charities each month.

Akeim Mundell BEM, assistant principal, head of PSHE and staff governor at William Hulme's Grammar School, said: “Here at William Hulme's Grammar School, we have a 'grab & go' breakfast station in both the primary and secondary phases of the school, which provide a spread of free breakfast snacks each morning from 8am to students who wish to access our offer.

“Evidence suggests that children and young people who regularly eat breakfast are likely to have better nutrient intakes and dietary patterns than those who regularly skip breakfast, and those better diets then go on to help to support their learning.

“We also understand that the cost-of-living crisis is affecting many of our parents, carers and families, which will sometimes make meals at home difficult to provide. Our breakfast provision is special, as it gives the opportunity for students to attend school earlier and to build stronger relationships with peers and staff.

“Our local Tesco at Whalley Range has been a huge supporter of our breakfast provision – the team has provided breakfast items to strengthen our breakfast offer and has also gone above and beyond by providing delicious snacks for all our Year 11 students throughout their GCSE exam period. The generosity of stores such as Tesco helps to develop a stronger sense of community, which we well and truly appreciate.”

Claire De Silva, Tesco Head of Community, said: “Working with community groups such as William Hulme Grammar School’s breakfast club to help them get the food they need is such an important service for us to be able to provide. The dedication they have to their community is amazing, and we are pleased to do what we can to support.

“We firmly believe no good food should go to waste, which is why we began our Community Food Connection scheme. It enables us to ensure our surplus food is put to good use in communities.”

FareShare is the UK’s biggest charity fighting hunger and food waste. Two-thirds of the organisations it provides food to support children and families.

Katie Sadler, Head of FareShare Go, said: “The food that Tesco redistributes through FareShare makes a huge difference to people facing food insecurity across the UK.

“We work with thousands of charities and community groups providing essential support to their communities, and receiving a steady stream of food helps them to feed the people who need it most.”

Charities and community groups that could benefit from the support of the Community Food Connection scheme can find further information at https://fareshare.org.uk/getting-food/