Schoolchildren will get a free hot and filling breakfast delivered to their homes as part of a one-day national campaign by a charity.

The Coalition for the Protection of Children launched its first National Breakfast Day and is scheduled to hand out the meals on October 25.

Denae Burchall, the programme coordinator for the coalition, said: “For our traditional programmes, corporations would sponsor a hot breakfast and serve the breakfast to the kids at the schools, but, because of Covid, the different companies can’t get into the schools.

“We thought this would be a nice way to bring the hot breakfast to the children in their homes.

“The children will still be on school break on October 25.”

Ms Burchall added that the breakfast would include fruit, juice and a choice of a breakfast sandwich with bacon or pancakes and scrambled egg.

She said: “This is the first year we are doing it but we hope to continue in the future and create more opportunities.

“We are thankful to our partners Buzz which is taking care of the catering and Sargasso Sea which will deal with deliveries.”

The coalition thanked its volunteers, including Melisa and Edmeiko Butterfield, a mother-and-son team who have volunteered for about three years.

Mr Butterfield, a counsellor at the Whitney Institute in Smith’s, said he heard about the programme through the charity and asked his mother to sign up for Sandys Middle School, where she works as a teaching assistant.

He added: “I wanted to get involved because, being a school counsellor, I always heard about the students’ financial situation.

“Some of them would come to school with no breakfast or even no lunch.”

Mr Butterfield said: “A student can’t learn if they are thinking about food.

“I would say island wide, especially now with the Covid pandemic, there are more families in need.”

Ms Butterfield, a foster parent for more than ten years, added she has always tried to help people in need.

She said: “My son probably picked it up from me – he told me about the programme and I wanted to get involved.

“I would stand outside and the whole neighbourhood would hear me calling breakfast – I was like the Pied Piper and he kids would come.”

Ms Butterfield added: “It doesn’t matter if they can afford breakfast at home or not, it is for everyone as some parents don’t want others to know that they are in need.

“I just wanted to make sure all of the kids could eat breakfast.”

She said she later moved to West End Primary School in Sandys for a stint before she returned to the parish’s middle school and ended up running the breakfast programmes at both schools.

Ms Butterfield said: “I love it – it brings the children together.

“There was one boy who was always crying and his teacher said he would never do his work.

“I asked the boy if he had any breakfast and he said he hadn’t.

“I made sure he ate breakfast every day and he was a happy camper after that.”

The giveaway is in addition to the coalition’s year-round Breakfast for Every Child programme, set up to provide breakfasts every day for pupils.

The coalition also works with the Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation’s essential worker child care programme to provide meals for their children.

Ms Burchall said: “We recognise the sacrifices that essential workers in our community have had to make during the pandemic and are thrilled to offer our support to them during this time.”

Parents can place orders for National Breakfast Day through the Sargasso Sea mobile app using a special discount code from today until next Tuesday.

The Sargasso Sea app can be downloaded from the Apple Store on iPhone or the Play Store for Android.

Orders can be placed by clicking on the Coalition for the Protection of Children’s National Breakfast Day store.

Parents can choose a meal and will be asked to enter the NBD2021 discount code.

Anyone unable to download the app should e-mail cpc@coalition.bm to organise orders and delivery.

The offer is open to children aged under 18.