In an interview from a 'multiple stakeholder' reception held at 10 Downing Street, and broadcast on ITV's Lorraine, Sir Keir Starmer championed the power of good school food as part of delivering goals to reduce child poverty and improve children's health, and the role that multiple partners can play in delivering healthy meals for more children and engaging children in learning about food and nutrition.

While we welcome the Prime Minister's recognition of the importance of school food and multi-stakeholder collaboration, recent developments raise important questions about what types of partnerships should be involved in delivering these vital programmes. The Department for Education (DfE) announced four new partnerships in the delivery of its breakfast club early adopter scheme, with press notices trumpeting the  'great deals for schools' it had struck.

Brand exposure in return for minimal investment

At Sustain’s Children’s Food Campaign, we had already raised concerns about the original tender document for these commercial partnerships. Although the tender specified that food and drink offers had to align with School Food Standards, the selection criteria omitted any reference to protect the scheme from brand level advertising and marketing by companies more commonly associated with products high in fat, salt and/or sugar (HFSS).

This is particularly concerning given how companies have long used sponsorship as a tactic to embed their brands within children’s education, as the BMJ recently exposed in its investigation: Food Industry has infiltrated UK children’s education: stealth marketing exposed.

So, what is our view of the partnerships announced by the UK government? The good news is one decent offer from children’s food and education charity Magic Breakfast, which has a strong track record in ensuring breakfast clubs are accessible, flexible, and healthy, as well as providing support and advice to schools. They are extending their own breakfast delivery portal to all early adopter schools, with discounts and direct delivery included.

However, it seems a small handful of food companies have been handed a sizeable promotional opportunity to associate themselves to a government flagship education initiative in return for very little investment.

For example:

• Morrisons is offering a free, anytime delivery pass to schools, applicable orders paid for at full price.

• Sainsburys is offering each school a one-off £200 gift card.

• Weetabix is offering up to 15% discounts on Ready Brek & Weetabix "from selected wholesalers".

What breakfast clubs really need to succeed

I want the breakfast club programme to succeed. When done well, it is a powerful intervention, backed by strong evidence demonstrating how healthy breakfasts positively sets pupils up for the school day and contributes to their attainment, especially those from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

But to maximise impact, the programme must be supported with training and advice, able to be delivered flexibly by schools, and properly funded so that every school can purchase from suppliers that best meet their needs. This could involve working with existing caterers or alternative providers, connecting with local dairies, bakeries, independent producers, and community hubs, or buying in from the most suitable suppliers for their pupils and setting.

An additional benefit of this flexibility and choice would be an alignment with the Department for Education’s climate action plans and the government’s commitment to ensure that at least 50% of all public sector food is purchased from local, sustainable, and British sources.

The bigger backdrop to this story is the government’s recent survey revealing that 75% of primary school headteachers fear that breakfast clubs are not financially viable, and several of the early adopter schools have now withdrawn from the programme. At the school level, business managers are struggling to stretch inadequate budgets to meet the real costs of delivering breakfast clubs.

Quite simply, schools should not be placed in a position where they are having to scrape around for offers, discounts, and deals to make breakfast clubs viable, when it is a government-backed scheme. State maintained education settings and government food programmes must be adequately designed and funded without any need for additional commercial sponsorship.

With an additional 2,000 schools set to join the scheme from April 2026, we urge the government to align its breakfast club vision with the recent curriculum review’s greater focus on food and climate change, and the food strategy’s championing of British farmers and local food cultures, while removing Big Food from the spotlight in schools.

As Barbara recently outlined on BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme:

“Food is such a lever for change. It’s such an important part of our resilience and our security as a nation, to be able to grow food, especially in a world where there’s geopolitical instability that can disrupt supply chains. We spend around £5bn a year on public sector food – 60% of that is our schools. How much of that is really benefiting our local economy and our British farmers? If there is a big investment in school breakfast clubs, let’s make sure that investment delivers for children’s health and especially for disadvantaged children, and let’s make sure we leverage the economic benefit for the entire community.”

Listen to Barbara on The Food Programme from the BBC, where she argues breakfast clubs could be a powerful tool to support local food producers and promote sustainable sourcing - and urge the Government to back that vision: The Food Programme - The Breakfast Club Challenge - BBC Sounds

Barbara Crowther is Children’s Food Campaign Manager for Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming.