North East bakery Greggs is set to expand its community support by introducing after-school and holiday care, along with other crisis support for families. The move comes as a celebration of 25 successful years of its breakfast club programme.
The charitable arm of the company, The Greggs Foundation, first rolled out its Breakfast Club programme in 2000. The initiative was sparked when then-CEO Mike Darrington attended a school event in Walker, where former North Tyneside mayor Norma Redfearn served as headteacher.
Upon noticing that some children were arriving at school hungry, she sought solutions and approached Mr Darrington to sponsor breakfasts at the school. Richard Hutton, CFO of Greggs, delved deeper into the concept of breakfast provision and partnership schools. He initiated a few more clubs and saw how these breakfast clubs led to improved behaviour among children who were no longer distracted by hunger during lessons.
Since those early days, the foundation has achieved the impressive milestone of operating over 1,000 Breakfast Clubs across the Ƶ, providing free food to more than 75,000 children every day. Now, it aims to further extend its community support through a new programme – Ƶ: Feeding Brighter Futures, reports .
This will offer free after-school care, holiday care, and family support in the form of grocery vouchers, clothing, and other essentials. Greggs has announced that its Feeding Brighter Futures initiative is set to build upon the foundation and pursue the identical goal of its breakfast club programme, which is to bolster educational equality. The chain shared details of the expansion alongside the Ƶ Government's fresh pledge to fund school breakfast provision, with pilot schemes having launched in April 2025 and a widespread implementation expected by 2027.
The shift in Government policy led The Greggs Foundation to engage with partner schools to re-evaluate where support could be best redirected. This dialogue highlighted an express need for enhanced after-school and holiday club assistance, recognising areas in which many children currently face barriers due to economic hardships or scarce resources.
Feeding Brighter Futures is committed to maintain backing for existing breakfast clubs throughout the period of Governmental transition, while initiating a trial phase for after-school and holiday club funding at selected schools throughout 2025.
Furthermore, each one of the 1,000 schools in the current network can continue to use The Greggs Foundation's hardship fund, which offers grants aiding in the procurement of crucial items like clothing, grocery vouchers, beds, and home appliances, geared towards supporting families in urgent need.
Mr Hutton, who holds positions both as a trustee of The Greggs Foundation and as its CFO, said: "This amazing programme, that's grown to feed over 75,000 children every single day, started with a very simple objective - that no child should start the school day hungry.
"We're proud that the Breakfast Clubs we support are places where children can build relationships, develop social skills, and gain the energy and focus that they need for their studies. For many, it's the highlight of their day. We've shown that that breakfast clubs are about more than just breakfast; they're about knocking down some of the barriers to a better future."
Tracy Lynch, Greggs Foundation manager, said: "This is such an exciting time for the future of the Foundation. For more than 25 years we've ensured thousands of children received a free breakfast at one of our clubs, and now we're able to offer a support package which covers even more of the school day.
"The feedback from our school network was clear. Too many children were unable to access extracurricular opportunities due to financial constraints, or schools were not able to provide the mix of activities or after-school support that they wanted. Giving children those safe spaces to learn, play, socialise or develop new hobbies has always been a key part of our support for schools. With Feeding Brighter Futures, we're able to give children equal access to even greater opportunities to unlock their future potential."
