- Kellogg’s, a corporate donor at The Community Foundation for Ireland provides much-needed funding to schools
- In its second year of grant funding, Kellogg is supporting school breakfasts clubs in the Greater Dublin region
- Research reveals the importance of breakfast clubs for children
Kellogg’s continues to support breakfast clubs in Ireland by donating funds to 28 schools in Dublin City and surrounding areas this year. The donations are part of a grant making initiative under Kellogg’s global signature cause, Breakfasts for Better Days by targeting qualifying schools across Dublin.
Kellogg’s partnered once again with The Community Foundation for Ireland, this year selecting 21 schools with existing breakfast club programmes and eight schools establishing new clubs for the first time. The fund is administered by The Community Foundation for Ireland, one of Ireland’s largest philanthropic organisations that manage funds and grant processes. In total, Kellogg’s has donated over €80,000 in the last two years of this 3-year grants programme.
Recent research conducted among teachers and breakfast club workers by The Community Foundation for Ireland and Kellogg’s highlights the need for further support. The key findings show the importance of breakfast clubs to children in many schools:
- More than 95% of schools agreed that their breakfast club had helped to improve attendance at school, whilst almost 95% also agreed that punctuality had improved
- 98% of schools believed that their breakfast clubs helped to improve children’s ability to concentrate, which in turn had a very positive impact in overall educational attainment
- Over 93% agreed that the breakfast club helped improve levels of behaviour at school
- A similar number (93%) agreed that attending the breakfast club had improved children’s social skills with both adults and other children
- 93% also agreed that breakfast clubs helped improve levels of participation in classroom activities
The findings also revealed that many children who attended breakfast clubs did not have access to breakfast home. 97% of survey respondents also felt the children actually enjoyed coming to the breakfast club.
Ruth Hughes General Manager for Kellogg Company of Ireland, said “Breakfast clubs play a vital role in making sure children get a good breakfast in the morning and supporting our communities. Furthermore the benefits of breakfast clubs to children and to teachers’ are important so it’s fantastic that we are able to make a difference”
Sara Stokes, Grants and Donor Service Executive, The Community Foundation of Ireland, “It is great to see the Kellogg’s Community Fund continue to support issues that affect some of the most vulnerable children in Ireland. Child food poverty is a very real and pressing social issue and school breakfast clubs are a great resource to ensure that no child goes to school hungry. We would love to see more corporate donors coming forward to work with us in creating a fair, caring and vibrant Ireland for now and the future. ”
As part of the Breakfasts for Better Days programme, Kellogg has already provided more than 1.9 billion servings of food to people in need globally and has pledged to provide a further 2.5 billion by 2025.
*All findings, unless otherwise stated, are from The Community Foundation for Ireland. The total sample size was 44 respondents from breakfast clubs run at schools. The research was carried through by a combination of online and telephones interviews. Fieldwork was undertaken in March 2017.