Sainsbury’s has announced an investment of more than £1.5 million to help children and families access nutritious food around the school day, timed to coincide with the start of the new school year.

The largest share, £1 million, goes to two charities working on food insecurity in schools through the retailer’s partnership with Comic Relief. Magic Breakfast and Rethink Food will each receive £500,000 to expand their reach and, in Sainsbury’s words, help develop long-term solutions to the barriers some families face in accessing good food.

Magic Breakfast will use its share to provide free, nutritious breakfasts to school children in both primary and secondary schools, targeting those most at risk of hunger. The funding will also help schools run breakfast clubs in a way that meets the needs of their pupils, with the aim of increasing uptake.

Rethink Food will put its £500,000 towards growing its National School Pantry Network, which helps schools in areas of high deprivation give families free access to nutritious food to take home, alongside wider support. The charity says thousands of schools already provide informal food support to families, and it wants to build a sustainable model that lets schools respond to rising need without adding to the pressure on staff.

More gift cards for free breakfast clubs

Sainsbury’s has also stepped up its support for the Department for Education’s free breakfast clubs programme. The 1,400 new schools enrolled onto the scheme are now eligible for a £200 Sainsbury’s gift card, an investment of £280,000. The retailer says this takes its total spend on the programme to more than half a million pounds, and means more than 2,700 schools will have been supported since launch.

The government has said it is investing £80 million to fund an additional 2,000 schools joining the programme between April 2026 and March 2027. Participating mainstream schools receive a £1,000 start-up grant, a daily flat rate of £25 and £1 per pupil per day attending. As of Easter this year, the Department for Education said 1,250 schools were offering free breakfast clubs, giving more than 300,000 children access to a free breakfast before the school day.

A further £300,000 from Sainsbury’s “Good food for all of us” community grants programme, run with Neighbourly, will fund upgrades to school kitchens in areas of high deprivation across the UK. The retailer says this could include new ovens, fridges and storage, improving the quality, output and efficiency of kitchens that underpin breakfast clubs and free school meals provision.

“For many families this can be a challenge”

Ruth Cranston, director of sustainability at Sainsbury’s, said: “Every child should be able to enjoy nutritious food both throughout the school day and when they get home, but for many families this can be a challenge.

“Through our partnerships with Comic Relief and the local charities it supports, the Department for Education, and Neighbourly, we’re helping schools provide more support today while also tackling the longer-term barriers that make it hard for some families to access nutritious food.”

The retailer presents the funding as part of a wider commitment to making good food easy and accessible for everyone, working to ensure no child or family goes hungry. It added that it is also investing this September to keep prices low for customers.

Sainsbury’s has been gaining market share in food while the wider grocery sector faces pressure on pricing from both shoppers and suppliers. Earlier this year, farmers blockaded supermarket depots, including a Sainsbury’s site in Northamptonshire, in protest at farmgate prices they said had failed to keep pace with rising costs.

For the school suppliers, caterers and equipment firms that serve the education sector, the announcement adds to a growing pool of money flowing into breakfast provision and school kitchens, with the government’s rollout and retailer-backed charity funding now running alongside each other.

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