Greggs Foundation

The Greggs Foundation is a registered charity, established in 1987 by Ian Gregg, who believed that successful organisations have a duty to do positive things with part of their profits and help people living in disadvantaged areas.

The Greggs Foundation receives donation from Greggs plc; employees through Give As You Earn; donations from major shareholders; investment income; and staff fundraising activities.

The Foundation has helped raise and distribute £10 million since it started.

Grant Giving

The Foundation aims to support the most disadvantaged people across the UK through its grant programmes:

- Major Grants - provide funding to other charitable organisations to support the most disadvantaged people in the North East of England
- Regional Grants - provides funding to other charitable organisations and individuals across the UK, by grants of up to £2,000
- Hardship Fund - helps families and individuals in the North East of England who are experiencing genuine hardship and are in need of ‘emergency' funding for essential items such as clothing, beds, ovens, etc.

Greggs Breakfast Clubs

What are they?
Each year Greggs donates £225,000 to the Greggs Foundation for the award winning Greggs Breakfast Club programme. Our Breakfast Clubs provide a free breakfast for primary school children in areas of particular social disadvantage. The programme has been shown to contribute to improved attendance and classroom performance and to strengthen the partnership between schools and the community in which they operate.

When did they start?
The programme came about as a direct result of a Business in the Community "Seeing is Believing" visit involving Greggs' former Group Managing Director Sir Michael Darrington. Sir Michael visited an established breakfast club at West Walker Primary School in Newcastle upon Tyne and was so struck by the positive impact that it was having on the pupils and the local community that he decided to investigate the subject to see how Greggs could help. Ten years on the programme is supporting 125 primary schools across the UK and there is no shortage of demand.

How does it work?
The Greggs model is simple, but highly effective. Primary schools that fit the programme's key criteria of clear social need and a commitment to improvement are supported in establishing a pre-school breakfast club. This provides a simple but nutritious breakfast entirely free of charge for all pupils in a safe, fun environment. This is possible because of the partnership between Greggs, who fund the equipment and foodstuffs, and volunteers from the school community who prepare and serve the meal.

The children are served a healthy breakfast of cereals, toast, milk and juice. The toast is made from bread collected from the local Greggs shop.

What impact do the Breakfast Clubs have?
The programme impacts positively on a number of different groups:

• Pupils' attendance and punctuality improves and they are better prepared for learning, having eaten breakfast. The clubs develop a caring, social environment first thing in the morning.

• Volunteers find their involvement with the club rewarding in itself but it can often open doors that were previously closed to them by developing skills and contacts that can lead to employment or training.

• Schools see behavioural improvement in pupils and find that the involvement of volunteers in the school strengthens its links with the local community.

• Greggs' staff support the programme enthusiastically, seeing the benefits that they can bring to the communities in which they work and live.

The programme is successful because Greggs have developed a simple, powerful model and upheld it in all the clubs they support. This is important if the benefits outlined above are to be achieved and maintained. Perhaps the most critical element of the model is the involvement of the volunteers. Not only does this keep the clubs' running costs at a sustainable level but it also brings a host of benefits to the school, society and the volunteers themselves.

Last, but by no means least, Greggs Breakfast Clubs are fun! Schools add other activities such as reading, games and music during the pre-school time and the lively, positive atmosphere always strikes visitors.

What we look for
The scheme is specifically targeted at areas of particular social disadvantage. Although we realise that need is difficult to quantify, most of the schools we sponsor have a free school meals percentage in excess of 50%. Head teachers need to be committed to the scheme to ensure that volunteers are adequately supported and the club is run safely. Finally, proximity to a Greggs shop is important to the partnership between the school and the company.

Interested?

If you believe your school would benefit from a Greggs Breakfast Club and want to know more then please e-mail greggsfoundation@greggs.co.uk for more details.

Other Fundraising

Greggs employees also undertake a number of fundraising activities during the year, to help raise money either for national causes, or local people and organisations. Our biggest fundraising event is BBC Children in Need. Over the past four years we have raised £1.4million for BBC Children in Need, and in 2009, the tremendous efforts of Greggs employees and customers saw us double our total from 2008, and placed us as the second biggest corporate fundraiser for the charity.