Magic Breakfast

Change activist definition:
A person who takes action
outside his or her comfort
zone in line with his
or her values
Change Activist :
©Carmel McConnell Ltd

Carmel McConnell

F.RSA, M.MBA,

Magic Breakfast Founder
Carmel’s background is a mixture of social activism and senior corporate roles.
Shocked by the numbers of children arriving at school too hungry to learn in London,
she founded Magic Breakfast as the first stage in a global approach to give every
hungry child a good breakfast as fuel for learning. During 2012 the charity provided
over a million free, healthy breakfasts to schoolchildren all over England, improving
child attendance, punctuality, concentration and behaviour.
Her MBA is in change leadership and technology, she has worked at senior levels in BT,
UBS & 20th Century Fox and has been an adviser to many FTSE 100 clients on change
leadership, growth and strategic alliances. Her corporate background specialised in
leading technology change in global markets.
While researching her first book, best selling business title Change Activist, she
became aware of the problem of children arriving at school too hungry to learn and
decided to do something about it. She remortgaged her home to start the project, it
now feeds 7,500 children each morning and the charity plans to solve the problem for
good.

MAGIC BREAKFAST
Registered Charity Number: 1102510
Offices : One90 High Holborn
London WC1V 7BH
Tel : 020 7836 5434
e: info@magicbreakfast.com
w: www.magicbreakfast.com
Donate at:
www.justgiving.com/ magicbreakfast
Caroline Walker Trust: Social
Enterprise of the Year
Winner: Guardian Charity Awards
Winner; PM’s Big Society Award

Carmel is a member of the Government’s School Food Plan expert panel, working with
Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent of Leon, to improve school food. It is hoped that the
Plan will result in a wide range of school food improvements, including breakfasts.
Carmel was awarded the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award (New Statesman/Edge)
in 2008 and now works full time on Magic Breakfast.
The charity won the No 10 Big Society Award and is currently the Pearson UK Employee
Charity of the Year. Magic Breakfast is proud to be the 2013 Charity Partner for the
Prime Minister and No 10 Downing Street.

www.magicbreakfast.com

Social activists
such as Gandhi
or Mandela
or Rosa Parks
Didn’t have a change team
Or a budget
Or offices to work from
But they changed history
Change Activist :

to activate
change,
maybe you
need to think
like a change
activist
And build trust….
Change Activist :

Change activist 3 big ideas

ction increases your comfort zone.

ou need a strong sense of purpose

nspire yourself and others to change.

es. You can change the world!
Change Activist :

My own change activism
Magic
Breakfast
delivers food and nutrition education
to primary schools in most need
Magic Outcomes

schools based practical leadership
development. All profits back to inner city
primary school children
Change Activist :

We can learn from
change activists 3.

Your contribution level = ??

Your fulfilment level
Change Activist :

Why are we doing this again?
“If you have a strong enough why,
you can cope with any kind of how”
Nietchsze

Change Activist :

What’s the purpose of your job?
Of your organisation?

Degree of
entrepreneurial
success

Personal stages..

Amount of
support

Lets create revenue,
become self-funding
Create longer term capacity

Lets really solve
this problem
Stakeholder engagement, self-sufficiency ethos
Let’s do something..
Personal response
to social need, desire to create new solutions Maturity
of project
Time
Change Activist :

to activate change, maybe you
need to think like a change
activist

Taking action increases your
comfort zone.
Take action firstthen things get better.
Change Activist :

I wanted to
But they wouldn’t let me

Change Activist :

Management
agenda
(regulatory,
The
financial)
hierarchy or
ownership

When your job is pulled in
different directions,
do you have to build twice
as much trust?

Is this
you?

External
stakeholders

Market need

Change Activist :

( public, students,
customers.)

How?
Change Activist :

We can learn from
change activists 2

More control in your life starts
with more control inside your
head
Who do you give control to?
At work?
At home?
Change Activist :

What small action
will deliver the greatest
benefits?
What are you prepared to DO?

Change Activist :

How to be a change activist! Summary.
1

2
3
4
5
6
7

Be clear on the bigger purpose of your work –
what is the big picture?
Motivate by helping others to see this.
Ask better questions.
Build trust, by being consistent.
Listen to people. Ask for feedback.
Be kind to yourself – you can be happy!
Most of all – the only way to do it, is to do it.
Trust. Take action.
Change Activist :

You’re more in control than you think

Change Activist :

We offer a healthy breakfast to children
who might otherwise start their school day
too hungry to learn.
Magic Breakfast is a loving, optimistic
charity which wants every child to have a
good breakfast everyday, part of getting
the best start in life.
It’s a charity with a great track record,
ready to grow, now looking for more great
corporate partners.

Carmel McConnell
Magic Breakfast Founder
Office 0207 836 5434

November 2013


Why we’re needed – UK child
poverty
Poverty limits children’s opportunity to reach their full potential, and disadvantage is often handed down from generation to generation: poor children often end up being poor

. (Department for Education)

adults

•

There are 3.6 million children living in poverty in the UK today. That’s
27 per cent of children, or more than one in four. (CPAG)

•

Child poverty is projected to rise with an expected 300,000 more
children living in poverty by 2015/16. This upward trend is expected
to continue with 4.2 million children projected to be living in poverty by
2020 (IFS)

•

32% of UK school children regularly skip breakfast in the morning
(University of Essex)

•

A survey held by The Guardian Teacher’s Network saw 55% of
teacher responding thatup to a quarter of pupils arrived hungry; 28%
said up to a half of their children did; 8% said it was up to threequarters; and 2% said it was every pupil.

•

Child poverty has long-lasting effects. By 16, children receiving free
school meals achieve 1.7 grades lower at GCSE than their wealthier
peers. Leaving school with fewer qualifications translates into lower
earnings over the course of a working life. (CPAG w. DoE Statistics)
UK map showing % children living in poverty 2012

What does Magic Breakfast do, & want to achieve?
Magic Breakfast is a registered charity, which delivers
free, healthy breakfasts to UK primary schools with over
40% free school meals. It has a team of just 7 and no
public funds. It plans to end child hunger as a barrier to
education first in the UK, then globally.
Our goal? To make sure every child starts school with a
healthy breakfast, as fuel for learning. Children arrive hungry
and malnourished at school due to 3 main reasons, family
poverty, lack of family nutrition awareness and lack of time in
the morning. But that doesn’t mean the child should miss out
on their morning of study.
We believe a healthy breakfast is essential fuel for learning,
ideally provided by a parent at home, but if not, at school.
Magic Breakfast feeds 8,000 children every morning in
over 240 primary schools in London, Birmingham, Manchester,
Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield and Rotherham. We have
160 primary schools on our waiting list.
The charity delivered well over a million free breakfasts in
2012. It now seeks investment and profile to upscale it’s
proven approach. We feel more parents need help to translate
their love for their child into better food and cookery skills.
Multiple social benefits and savings are realised by giving
the most deprived children the most important meal of the day.

MAGIC BREAKFAST
Registered Charity Number: 1102510
Offices One90 High Holborn
London WC1V 7BH
Tel : 020 7836 5434
e: info@magicbreakfast.com
w: www.magicbreakfast.com
Winner: Guardian Charity Awards 2005
Magic Outcomes Winner Caroline Walker
Social Enterprise 2005.
Founder Carmel McConnell Winner
Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2008
Big Society Winner 2011
No 10 Downing Street
Social Action Partner 2013


We know our support works
Questioned about the impact of
Magic Breakfast support,
Headteachers and breakfast club
co-ordinators responded as follows
• 88% say improved attainment and attendance
• 94% show more positive social relationships
• 93% say increased concentration and energy in
class
• 74% have seen improvement in behavior
• 75% have seen improved relationships between
parents and the school
• 94% have healthier eating habits

Data from 148 Magic Breakfast Schools, Summer 2011

We have developed partnerships with a
range of business leaders. Our strategic
partnership with Quaker Oats and
Tropicana fruit juice is vitally important to
these children and has directly helped our
growth.


Positive

Action

To Solve
the Problem

We campaign, educate,

support communities

Raise public awareness
& money

Efficient supply chain &
food partnerships

Provide healthy breakfasts to
hungry and poorly fed children

Help articulate the issue gain media coverage of the
issue and solution

Manage bespoke school
orders, food delivered
nationally

Children are properly fed, so start
their school day with the right fuel
for learning

Manage political lobbying
process

Liaise with healthy
breakfast food partners

Parents and children learn food and
nutrition skills and the importance of
a good breakfast at home

Effective fundraising

Manage logistics

Build strong, long term
corporate and funder
partnerships.
Be optimistic..

Payments and problem
solving
Continuous, loving
improvement

as catalysts for change.

Schools supported to achieve
sustainability. Immediately improve
child attendance, punctuality,
concentration and over time,
attainment.
It works.

Magic Breakfast: More than Food Aid
•
School
Sustainability
Programme

•
•

Three year programme, building capacity in
the school and school community resulting
in an effective and self-funded breakfast
club.
Raising family nutritional awareness
Building social enterprise schools in the
poorest communities

Magic
Breakfast
365

Magic
Breakfast

Food aid to over 230
primary school breakfast
clubs nationally, feeding
more than 7,500 children
every morning

Magic
Outcomes

Magic
Cookery
Clubs

•
•

• Breakfasts served and healthy lifestyle activities
offered at partner schools during school holidays.
• A platform to engage the whole families in the
poorest communities, and develop healthy eating and
lifestyle habits.
• 2009 pilot funded by supermarket chain, Asda.
Investment required for wider roll-out.

• Leadership and CSR by award winning* social
enterprise, with all profits going to Magic Breakfast.
• Customers include Pearson, Unilever & BT.
• Programme also capable of school leadership
development, e.g. Headteacher finance skills.

Utilising skills and experience gained through implementation
of 20 school programme within national Let’s Get Cooking
programme, funded by the National Lottery
As part of programme set up 20 school based cookery
programmes, helping families on low incomes, learn how to
cook easy, healthy meals from scratch.

Thank You

One of the teachers in a Magic Breakfast partner school
recently commented

“these kids only have one chance at childhood, and
one chance at education. Education is going to be
their best way out of poverty. By feeding and valuing
them, Magic Breakfast makes a practical difference
to these children every single day”
If you know of a primary school with over 50% free school
meals, tell them about us. We’ll help. If you care about this
issue, please give us money – we’ll use it wisely.
Contact Carmel McConnell,
Founder, Magic Breakfast and Magic Outcomes Ltd
Mobile 07710 057955.
Email carmel@magicbreakfast.com


Donate at: www.justgiving.com/magicbreakfast

Summary
Change activism is
the mindset
for your change journey
Change activism stimulates the sense of
purpose you need to stay fuelled.
Change activism builds trust.
Do you think you could be a change
activist?

Change Activist :

One person can
make a big difference.
Why not you?

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