Chartwells to add free breakfasts to school food parcels

Chartwells, the UK’s largest school meals caterer, has announced it will add free breakfasts to school food parcels from 25 January.

The caterer, which works with more than 3,000 schools, made national headlines when a picture of its free school meals bag went viral on Twitter and was widely criticised.

Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United football player and child hunger activist, described the bag as “unacceptable” and spoke directly with Boris Johnson about remedying the situation.

Charlie Brown, managing director of Chartwells UK, said: “In normal times we are inside schools cooking nutritious meals for children, and in many cases offering breakfast, so our absolute priority is to help our schools and families continue to eat well through lockdown.

“We acknowledge that when schools were closed it caused some local issues as we switched from meals to parcels. We have been listening to parents and working out how we can best use our resources to do more to help.”

He added: “From 25 January, we will be adding breakfast into the parcels which will be free of charge to schools for all children eligible for free school meals and we will continue this provision while schools are closed.

“We hope this will further support children with their learning through the day.”