Sunderland academy partners with Greggs and housing association to provide free breakfast for 300 students

300 pupils at Farringdon Academy in Sunderland are benefitting from a new breakfast club with a free nutritional meal to start the day, thanks to the newly launched partnership with Gentoo and the Greggs Foundation.

Farringdon Academy was successful in its bid for funding from the Greggs Foundation’s Breakfast Club Programme, which is being financially backed by Sunderland based housing association, Gentoo.

Gentoo’s support for the Breakfast Club, which will reach 10 years thanks to the new partnership with Farringdon Academy, will see the school’s breakfast offering expanded to support 300 pupils.

The school has also been able to benefit from Greggs’ grab and go breakfast trollies, which have enabled breakfast meals to be safely transported around the school during the pandemic, minimising mixing between pupils and preventing transmission of COVID-19.

Claire McDermott, Headteacher at Farringdon Academy, said: “We are so grateful to Gentoo and the Greggs Foundation for their support. We have wanted to create a breakfast club like this for a while and this new partnership is going to make such a difference to our pupils.

Nigel Wilson, chief executive officer at Gentoo, added: “Gentoo is delighted to create this new partnership with Farringdon Academy through the Greggs Foundation’s Breakfast Club. We know we have a large number of tenants living in the area whose children attend the school, and we are pleased to support them through the new breakfast club.

Lynne Hindmarch, Breakfast Club manager for the Greggs Foundation, concluded: “No child should ever start their day without breakfast, which is why we’re delighted to be opening a new Breakfast Club at Farringdon Academy, thanks to the extremely generous support and funding of Gentoo.

“Through Clubs such as this, we’re able to support over 45,000 children each school day nationally, and new openings like the one at Farringdon Academy are helping us to continue heading towards reaching our target of serving 70,000 breakfasts each school day by 2025.”

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