The researchers raise concerns that the work schools are doing to support their communities is not recognised by inspections or wider policy and is either precariously funded or not funded at all. This risks exacerbating disparities between schools that serve disadvantaged versus advantaged communities.
The report is informed by research project ‘Food banks in schools: exploring the impact on children’s learning’, funded by the British Educational Research Association (BERA).
Conducted by Professor Alice Bradbury and Sharon Vince at IOE’s Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (HHCP), the research set out to investigate the growing use of food banks in schools. It explores what motivates schools to provide food banks, and how they operate them, through case studies of six primary schools in England.
The results serve to illustrate the current depth of need experienced by struggling families, with the aid these schools offering stretching beyond food to include clothing, uniform, shoes and household products and toiletries.
