School breakfast clubs, social background and nutritional status.

Introduction: After being popular across other countries for many years, the number of school breakfast clubs in the UK has expanded dramatically since the late 1990s. They are viewed as being able to make a positive contribution in terms of meeting the educational, care and health needs of children – particularly those in greatest need from poorer backgrounds. But research in this country on the effectiveness of school breakfast provision remains limited and largely anecdotal. Donald Simpson, Carolyn Summerbell, Robert Crow and Louise Wattis report on a study that evaluated the impact of two school breakfast clubs from a health perspective