Sainsbury’s Invests In Healthy School Food, Half-Price Lunch Box Essentials

Sainsbury’s is investing more than £1.5 million in initiatives to improve children’s access to nutritious food, while also cutting the price of selected fruits and vegetables for families returning to school and work routines.

Through its partnership with Comic Relief, the retailer is providing £1 million to food insecurity charities Magic Breakfast and Rethink Food, with each receiving £500,000, reports Grocery Trader.

Magic Breakfast will use the funding to expand its free breakfast provision in primary and secondary schools. 

Rethink Food, meanwhile, will invest in its National School Pantry Network, helping schools in areas of high deprivation provide families with nutritious food to take home.

The series of investments are designed to broaden children’s access to healthy food both inside and outside of the classroom during the school day. 

Sainsbury’s is also extending its support for the Department for Education’s free Breakfast Clubs programme. 

Around 1,400 additional schools will be eligible for a £200 Sainsbury’s gift card, representing a further £280,000 investment and taking the retailer’s total contribution to more than £500,000.

A further £300,000 will be distributed through Sainsbury’s ‘Good food for all of us’ community grants programme, in partnership with Neighbourly, to help upgrade school kitchens. 

Potential projects include improvements to ovens, refrigeration, and storage, supporting schools to increase their capacity to provide meals and breakfast clubs.

“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,” explained Ruth Cranston, Director of Sustainability at Sainsbury’s.

“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,” she added.

Half-Price Lunch-Box Essentials

Image: Sainsbury's

Alongside the community investment, Sainsbury’s is putting the focus on affordable fresh produce, offering half-price Nectar Prices on selected fruit and vegetable favourites on 3-6 September.

The promotion includes British mini apples, easy peelers, large single kiwifruit, yellow-fleshed nectarines, British Chantenay carrots, and blueberries, according to a press release from the retailer.

The aim is to give shoppers savings on produce suitable for lunchboxes, snacks, and family meals.

Sainsbury’s said these offers will make it simpler and more affordable to enjoy more fruit and veg throughout the week, as shoppers get back into school and work routines following the summer holiday.

The limited period offer is available in stores and online for Nectar customers. The discounts will be applied automatically to linked online accounts. 

The value-focused offer forms part of a series of four weekend Nectar Prices promotions running throughout September, which started over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Sainsbury’s said these initiatives form part of its wider commitment to making nutritious food more accessible.