Asda offering children free porridge at cafes over half term to help families with cost of living crisis

The new free offer means that families are now able to access both a free children’s breakfast and a main meal for just £1 in all Asda cafes in a bid to continue to help customers manage the cost-of-living crisis.

Children will be able to get a free bowl of porridge from 8am to 12 noon every day in 205 Asda cafes across thehalf term, on top of the existing £1 kids main meal deal.

The partnership is expected to enable more than 50,000 bowls of porridge to be served to children across the country.

Recent research from charity Magic Breakfast has shown that 81 per cent of schools believe that child hunger has increased in their community in the last year and 94 per cent believe poverty has increased. Additionally, 95 per cent of schools agree that breakfast provision has positively impacted concentration in class and 87 per cent agree it alleviates pressure on family budgets.

More than 1.1 million £1 meals have been sold to date with the retailer seeing a tenfold increase in meals served across key school holiday periods demonstrating the impact holidays can have on families’ budgets. 100,000 meals were served during the December Christmas holiday period compared to 40,000 meals sold at the end of November.

In January, Asda announced the extension of both its Kids £1 meals and over 60’s Winter Warmer £1 soup cafe initiatives until the end of March. The extension also comes after Asda’s Income Tracker shows that household disposable incomes fell by an average of 11.4 per cent during the fourth quarter to £209 per week, compared to £236 per week in the same quarter in the previous year.

Kris Comerford, Asda’s chief commercial officer, said: “We know when families are preparing for the school holidays it can often mean an additional strain on household budgets – especially feeding and entertaining their children. We remain as committed as ever to supporting our customers in tackling these tough times. Our café initiatives continue to provide a lifeline for over 1.5 million customers since we launched them last year, and we hope by offering a free warm breakfast in the February half term, it will help support many more in the coming weeks.”

Divesh Parmar, general manager of Quaker Oats UK, added: "It's so important that everyone has access to breakfast to start the day which is why we’re partnering with Asda to provide free Quaker Oats porridge to children this half term. This initiative, alongside our new Share the Warmth campaign, means we can play a small part in getting a warm, nutritious breakfast to people who really need it this winter."

The current Kids for £1 menu includes a choice of one of six hot meals or a cold pick and mix sandwich meals deal for £1.