Why every child needs a big breakfast

How much can a bagel improve concentration?

Sophie Petit-Zeman reports on one woman's campaign to ensure that all schoolchildren in London get the best nutritional start to the day

CARMEL McConnell confesses that her passion, ensuring that schoolchildren are not too hungry to learn, was born out of prevarication. "I was messing around on the internet, and an article caught my eye. The Child Poverty Action Group had reported that school meals are the only hot food eaten by one in four UK schoolchildren."

The story struck a particular chord, because a friend of McConnell's, who teaches in east London, had just admitted that she took bananas to school for hungry seven-year-olds whose parents weren't around to feed them the night before - or couldn't afford to.

McConnell, who describes herself as "a social activist with a strong track-record in business leadership", was amazed that this was happening in London. Her day job, "change management", helping City companies to work in a better, more socially responsible way, set her wondering how investment bankers could have millions of pounds whizzing across their trading screens, while just a few miles down the road there were Hackney schoolkids too hungry to learn. Unlikely as it may seem, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, child poverty in the UK is among the worst in the developed world.

McConnell's view that children must eat well, especially in the mornings, is strongly supported by Sara Stanner, nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation. " Breakfast is vital, especially for children, who may not make up for lost nutrients later in the day. A number of studies have also shown that children's concentration, behaviour and academic achievement is better throughout the whole day if they eat a healthy breakfast, and it is too often the case that children don't eat well for financial reasons."

McConnell, who has written a book, Change Activist, about how people can set about achieving change in areas about which they feel passionate, is now practising what she preaches. For two weeks each month, she puts aside her business meetings and does voluntary work. She has used the proceeds from the book to begin a charity called The Magic Sandwich.

With her initial funding, she is able to provide a consignment of bagels, juice and muffins for five local primary schools, which she delivers each morning. The next stage is to involve businesses and food providers to come up with the food, free of charge.

"Businesses that come on board will get the buzz of knowing they're doing something really worthwhile, as well as a useful chunk of ethical branding," says McConnell. "It's only a small slice off their profits. I only need a millionth of an investment bank's e- business budget and I can give breakfast to a child who didn't get any supper the night before."

THE five schools involved so far are forming a research project, to assess what effect the provision of breakfast has on academic performance and absenteeism. Alistair Friend, head at Thomas FairChild primary school, one of the five on McConnell's round, is delighted with the daily deliveries. "All the bagels are being eaten, and this must be having an impact on the children's ability to learn in the mornings. The only downside has been for the teachers, who have to resist the smells of warming bagels in the staff-room oven each day."

Next, McConnell aims to arrange for nutritionists to visit schools to help children understand why they might be better off with bagels than with another packet of crisps - the lesson can be based on simple, direct ideas, such as: "If you want to be like David Beckham, eat like him."

This is not just another of the breakfast clubs, which many schools have successfully put in place. McConnell believes that these are too often "in nice schools in affluent areas, which are unlikely to be those with malnourished kids. I really believe that we're sitting on a nutritional time bomb," she says. "If we don't address it, we will leave significant numbers of our children at serious disadvantage."

The Magic Sandwich: 07710 057955; carmelmcconnell @hotmail.com; Carmel's book, Change Activist, 15, published by Momentum, author profits to charity.

British Nutrition Foundation: 020 7404 6504; www.nutrition.org.uk

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