Pilgrim’s UK, one of the UK’s biggest food producers and the largest provider of higher welfare pork, has pledged funding to ensure local schoolchildren in Manchester receive free meals during lockdown and the school holidays.
The business, which has a site in Manchester, has donated £5,000 each to Rushbrook Primary Academy in Gorton and Higher Openshaw Community School to help prevent ‘holiday hunger’ throughout 2021. The vouchers will be distributed to families eligible for free school meals throughout the current school closures and all school breaks this year.
The donation forms part of an ongoing partnership between Pilgrim’s UK and the Greggs Foundation’s Breakfast Club initiative which helps to ensure primary school children get a nutritious start to their school day each morning. Pilgrim’s UK has been supporting school breakfast clubs since April 2017 and currently funds meals at six schools across the UK.
Rebecca Hinton, Commercial Manager at Pilgrim’s UK, said: “No child should ever have to go hungry, which is why we are so committed to working with The Greggs Foundation to make sure pupils experiencing hardship can still enjoy healthy, nutritious meals in school and at home.
Pilgrim’s will be donating a total of £60,000 to twelve schools across the country to help combat child poverty through its Hardship Fund.
“We know we have a responsibility to make a positive difference in the communities we are based in, now more than ever. That’s why we will continue to work with charities and community groups in Manchester and across the UK through our Hardship Fund.”
Lynne Hindmarch, Breakfast Club Manager at The Greggs Foundation, said: “Pilgrims UK are wonderful partners, and we are delighted to have worked with them over the past 6 years. These grants make a huge difference to children and their family life. We also know that our Breakfast Club schools are based in communities where many families continue to experience financial hardship. None so more than the unpredicted level of potential financial worry and additional access to funds for the provision of food and living necessities during the current Coronavirus outbreak.”
