About the AEGON Breakfast Club

Background

In April 2003, City of Edinburgh Council Children and Families Department and NHS Lothian committed to developing breakfast clubs in primary schools across the City on the basis that:

  • There would be open free access for all.
  • Schools would be prioritised according to need, using Health Deprivation Category scores and Free School Meals statistics.

By August 2007, there were 26 breakfast clubs running in 28 schools. The AEGON Breakfast Club initiative aims to expand these to every primary school in Edinburgh over the next three years.

Everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but research from the Health Education Board for Scotland found that ‘children from low-income families are more likely to go to school without having had a nutritious meal’*.

*HEBS report, 2003

What happens at a breakfast club?

Each breakfast club runs for between half an hour to an hour before school. Typically between 10 to 60 children a day attend. They can enjoy a healthy, nutritious breakfast – for example, cereal, toast, yoghurt, fruit, juice and water.