Words by Smiley Team
A family who have recorded annual Christmas songs since 2006 are this year donating the profits to children’s charity Magic Breakfast.
Stuart Jackson along with his wife Natalie, and their three children sing as a group called The Screaming Jacksons.
The family from Surrey chose to donate the proceeds from the downloads of their 2021 song, ‘Oh Christmas bells’, to the charity, which aims to end hunger as a barrier to education and provides a healthy breakfast to school children throughout the year as well as over school holidays.
“Magic Breakfast is a wonderful charity helping ensure children’s education doesn’t suffer because of hunger," says Stuart. "Having three kids myself, all of who perform on the song, I know just how important it is to keep kids motivated and energised to help them fulfil their potential. It’s a pleasure to be donating all money made from the song to this great charity.”
Katie Clowes, partnerships and media relations manager at Magic Breakfast adds: “It's a really novel way of fundraising for charity that we’ve never had before. At this time of year it's a lovely, feel-good initiative raising awareness and funds for Magic Breakfast. People love it and it's gone down very well with our audience, offering a bit of positivity to finish off the year."
Christmas often puts increased pressure on families, while they have to buy presents, decorations and cover heightened energy bills as the weather turns colder.
So the help from Magic Breakfast counts for a lot. In fact, just 34p is enough to cover breakfast for one child, including nutritious, energy-packed items such as bagels, cereal, porridge and fruit juice.
Originally, the charity solely distributed food via its partner schools at breakfast clubs. But when schools closed for lockdown they partnered with Amazon, where Stuart works, using their delivery service to get meals to vulnerable families at home.
Since May 2020, Magic Breakfast and Amazon have delivered over 5 million free, healthy breakfasts to the homes of hungry children, lightening the burden on parents and carers throughout school closures and holidays.
“The festive period can be challenging for a lot of the families we support, so I think any help we can provide for our community and the schools we work with this Christmas is vital,” says Katie.
Magic Breakfast provides healthy breakfasts to children in the UK facing food insecurity, whose hunger jeopardises their ability to learn at school. The charity also offers expert support to schools to help identify and reach those children most at risk.
They work with over 1,000 primary, secondary, ASL or Special Educational Needs Schools and Pupil Referral Units in disadvantaged areas of England and Scotland, ensuring over 200,000 children eat breakfast in order to start their school day ready to learn.
To support their work donate via magicbreakfast.com.
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