Customers buying food and drinks at Greggs will be able to support children around the country through a new ‘donate a breakfast’ initiative.
Greggs supports breakfast clubs in hundreds of schools around the 海角视频, working with sponsors and providing free food to ensure that thousands of schoolchildren start the day with a nutritious meal.
Now it is appealing to customers to join the initiative by adding 25p to the cost of their order to provide a breakfast at one of the clubs.
Read more : Greggs' big vision
The initiative follows the launch earlier this year of the Greggs Pledge, a series of 10 commitments that will see the Newcastle firm work to make the world a better place.
Alongside commitments on reducing its environmental impact and protecting animal welfare, the Greggs Pledge included a plan to double the impact of its breakfast clubs to provide 70,000 free meals each morning.
A breakfast club appeal run by the firm in May raised £120,000 from customers, and now the company has decided to make the ability to support free breakfasts a year-round thing in its stores.
Lynne Hindmarch, breakfast club manager at the Greggs Foundation, said: “Thanks to the fantastic support of our customers during our Breakfast Club Appeal earlier this year, we raised £120,000, enough to provide 480,000 free breakfasts to school pupils, helping to give them the best start to the school day.
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“We know that more needs to be done to help eliminate child food poverty, and no child should ever have to start their day hungry. That’s why we are committed to doubling the impact of our Breakfast Club programme by 2025, to provide 70,000 free, nutritious meals every school day.
“We hope that through small donations of just 25p, our customers can help us to achieve this goal. While it’s a small amount, every single donation makes a huge difference and provides a nutritious, free meal to a child in need, which is why we’re so pleased to be rolling out this initiative all year round.”
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For many millions of people, each day can be a struggle for survival, as a lack of opportunity, resources and infrastructure often leaves them hungry, without clean water and unable to work for a living.
The United Nations reports that 10 per cent of the world’s population, or 734 million people, live on less than $1.90 a day.
Dr Nik Kotecha OBE reflects: "I have experienced extreme poverty myself when I came to the 海角视频 as a child refugee at a very young age...I have been fortunate enough to have built a number of successful businesses, which have been able to give back."
Greggs Breakfast Clubs were started in North Tyneside in 1999 and there are now more than 630 in schools around the 海角视频.