Education Today Education Today Magazine
16 per cent of teachers report regularly parting with their own money to buy food or snacks for kids, while over a quarter (27 per cent) have given away food they personally brought in for their own snacks or meals.
A new report launched today, Hungry to Learn: The impact of morning hunger on our schoolchildren, reveals the extreme lengths teachers are going to feed hungry children at school; a sign of the increased pressures schools and families are facing when it comes to food poverty.
The report by Kellogg’s includes a study of 867 teachers and 2,000 adults and is being launched to mark the opening of its 2025 Breakfast Club Awards.
It also revealed that the average teacher spends nearly £25 a month of their own money – more than £220 across the school year – feeding hungry pupils. This comes as over three quarters (78 per cent) of teachers believe there is a significant issue with children not having daily access to food.
With an average of four hours a week spent helping and supporting hungry children, 80 per cent of teachers surveyed admitted they often feel more like a caregiver than a teacher, and 78 per cent said they felt the school had become more of a ‘community hub’.
What’s more, over one in twenty (seven per cent) claim they may not have become a teacher, had they known the extra ‘pastoral responsibility’ that would come with it, equating to around 45,000* teachers in the UK. Another 30 per cent would have given it more thought due to the increased pressures they face.
This extra responsibility comes as over one third (36 per cent) of teachers surveyed claim to see hungry children arriving at school every day, with almost half (49 per cent) seeing an increase in the number of children in their classroom going hungry compared to last year.
Of the 2,000 adults surveyed, a quarter admitted they struggled to feed their families, with more than half (53 per cent) having cut back on electricity and gas to pay for food, while 52 per cent have borrowed money from friends and family to cope with their financial commitments as the cost of living continues to bite.
Almost three quarters (74 per cent) said that their child goes to a breakfast club compared to 66 per cent in 2023 – highlighting the growing demand for this provision amongst families.
When asked about the impact they were seeing in the classroom, some of the most common side effects of hunger noted by teachers include being tired in class (81 per cent), having difficulty concentrating (79 per cent) or disruptive behaviour (50 per cent).
As well as helping to alleviate this hunger, breakfast clubs also provide social and wellbeing benefits, with 64 per cent stating their children enjoy going to spend more time with friends – helping them to build connections with their peers.
The launch of the research report marks the return of Kellogg’s Breakfast Club Awards for another year, recognising best practice and innovation among the thousands of breakfast clubs that take place at schools across the UK, and honouring the teachers and school communities tackling hunger in the classroom.
