Chartwells to add free breakfast items to school meals parcels

School meals caterer Chartwells, which came under fire from Marcus Rashford for the substandard free school meals parcels, has announced it will add free breakfast items to these parcels.

The breakfast items will include a bagel, yoghurts, juice, milk, oats and fruit. Chartwells works with over 3,000 educational units including primary schools, secondary schools and universities.

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.

“From 25th 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.”

Chartwells is planning to establish a helpline so they can quickly provide additional food to anyone whose parcel has not met the requirements.