COUNCILLORS have rubber-stamped continuing support for funding food snacks for children at Beech Grove Primary School in Wellington.

Wellington Town Council’s policy and finance committee agreed on June 10 to recommend that the council provided funding for all 285 pupils to receive a half a bagel each on arrival at school every day and also a healthy cereal snack at morning break for the 170 children in Key Stage Two.

Councillors had initially agreed to award funding from April up until the end of the current summer term, but they gave the green light at the full council meeting on Monday (July 1) to finance the project for the whole of the 2024-25 academic year at a cost of £12,000.

Cllr Justin Cole praised Beech Grove’s business manager, Deb McKie, for her work in making the scheme a success.

“To kick-start this project took a lot of work,” he said. “It’s easy for us (councillors) to sit round and agree something, but it was Deb who put in all the work to get this off the ground.”

It was back in April when Wellington Town Council was told that some pupils at Beech Grove had been arriving for class in the morning feeling hungry because they had not been given any breakfast.

Beech Grove had already been running successful breakfast clubs and after-school groups for children to help those parents who work, but it wanted to provide all pupils with something to eat at the start of the day.

The current scheme looked to help all pupils and not just those who had already been identified as being in need of support.

Cllr Cole had previously said it had been difficult to reach out to all parents who were “just above the threshold for benefit support and not on the radar.”

The scheme at Beech Grove ensures that no child is missed out from having a snack on arrival at school.

The council support came after it was told that children had been arriving at school feeling hungry and that had had a negative impact on lessons within the classroom.