The Breakfast Club nonprofit forced to shut down after nine years of providing meals at Cape Town school

The Breakfast Club, a nonprofit feeding scheme at Good Hope Seminary Junior School in Cape Town, was recently forced to cease operations after nine years of providing meals to learners. The nonprofit, which was founded in 2016, was told to pack up shop by the school governing body (SGB) after it refused to begin paying rent for the unused classroom at the school where it prepared food.

On 14 November, the nonprofit received a letter instructing it to stop all feeding programmes immediately. The school governing body gave the organisation until 21 November to remove all its equipment and food from the school premises.

Up until that point, the Breakfast Club had been providing a breakfast of warm e’Pap, made with full cream milk, and fruit to 340 children at the school daily, according to Mandy Trollip, a trustee of the club. About 75% of the school’s learners had opted into the voluntary feeding programme.

“We are concerned with the timing – this was at the beginning of exams, with only three weeks until the end of the term. We are concerned that the children will not only be hungry, but will also be confused and upset by the sudden change and seeing us pack up and go with no explanation,” said Trollip.

“When the removal truck arrived… one of the children said to me, ‘Why have you stopped feeding me? I’m hungry.’ … This little boy’s expression will stay with me for a long time.”

Relationship ‘breakdown’

The Breakfast Club was founded by Patsy Bagraim in an effort to tackle hunger and its interference with the ability of children to concentrate. The organisation was entirely funded by donations from individuals, companies and other charities, according to Trollip.

“Most of the children attending the school travel a considerable distance to get there. Usually, they have eaten something at home, but it is often around three hours from waking up to starting school,” explained Trollip.

“We feed them a cereal fortified with vitamins and minerals made with full cream milk and a piece of fruit. The product is formulated for children to sustain them throughout a day. It is not about filling them up, it’s about giving them a nutritionally sound meal.”

For nine years, the club “simply got on with it” without a formal contract between the organisation and the school, said Trollip. Helpers and volunteers prepared food in an unused classroom that had no running water, washing 340 bowls a day with water carried from a nearby utility room.

The organisation provided about 66,000 meals a year – a R440,000 annual undertaking.

However, in July 2025, the leaders of the nonprofit were called into a meeting with members of the school governing body that Trollip described as “hostile” and “confrontational”. This was followed by a second meeting in which the club was instructed to provide a presentation on its activities, she said.

Rental demand

“During the meetings, the SGB demanded rental from the Breakfast Club for the space we used to prepare and store the food… We did not agree to their demand for rental. We raise funds to feed the children of Good Hope Seminary Junior and not to pay [the school] rent,” Trollip told Daily Maverick.

“It became obvious the relationship was broken when we were accused of using the school’s name to raise the funds to feed the children of the school. They repeatedly referred to our prep and storage area as a ‘venue’, suggesting we were running a business.”

Despite these clashes, Trollip said that the acting principal of the school, representing the school governing body, told the Breakfast Club they could continue operating without paying rent in August. The club responded by sending through a contract detailing the rent-free agreement and the nonprofit’s responsibilities in terms of room maintenance, access and pest control.

“We sent it to the SGB on 27 August and again on 12 September, but it was not acknowledged or signed by them. A month later, we were asked to attend our third meeting, with the principal only, in which we were advised that they had changed their mind and did want rent. Once again we declined to pay rental to the school for the privilege of feeding their learners,” said Trollip.

The letter instructing the Breakfast Club to cease operations was signed by SGB representative Toufeeqah Cambell and acting Principal Dean Van Jaarsveld. It stated that attempts to engage with the club regarding “non-compliance and rental for the usage of our facilities” had failed.

“The SGB, being the accountable body at GHSJ, was denied the opportunity to discuss and agree on reasonable terms in the form of a memorandum of understanding between our school and the Breakfast Club, and as such, the trust between the two entities has broken down,” stated the letter.

The decision to evict the Breakfast Club was part of a collective resolution emerging from a meeting of the SGB, parents and staff on 13 November, it continued.

Trollip said that the nonprofit’s trustees were unsure what compliance issues the SGB was referencing, other than the club’s refusal to pay rent. She noted that they had already ordered large amounts of dry goods and milk at the time of the abrupt eviction.

“Since our eviction, we have had to donate our milk to another charity (Heartlands Baby Sanctuary) and find storage for our dry goods and equipment,” she said.

According to Trollip, the parents of learners received a WhatsApp from the school on the day the club was evicted, advising them to pack an extra sandwich or snack for their child as “there will be no breakfast served at the school as of Monday, 17 November”.

‘Regrettable’ outcome

Daily Maverick sent the following questions to the acting principal of Good Hope Seminary Junior School and representatives of the school governing body on 25 November:

• The Breakfast Club has been operating at the school since 2016. What motivated the decision to ask the programme to start paying rent to operate on the premises earlier this year?
• Aside from the disagreement over rental, were there any other factors that led to the school governing body terminating the operations of the Breakfast Club on the premises?
• According to the Breakfast Club, it has provided about 66,000 meals a year for nine years at Good Hope Seminary Junior School. Can the school confirm that this is the case?
• Did any funding for the Breakfast Club’s operations come from the school?
• What strategies does the school have in place to fill the gap left by the Breakfast Club when it comes to meal provision?
• What feedback has the school received from the parents of learners regarding the closure of the Breakfast Club?

A representative of the school governing body replied later that day, confirming receipt of the email and asking for an extension of the deadline to respond until after a meeting between the SGB and the Western Cape Education Department on 27 November. No further responses from the representative were forthcoming, despite several follow-up emails from Daily Maverick.

In phone calls to the school, this journalist was told the acting principal was unavailable and would call back. He did not.

The Western Cape Education Department said that the breakdown in the relationship between Good Hope Seminary Junior School’s SGB and the Breakfast Club was “regrettable”, as the club had provided “significant benefits” to learners over the years.

“The [WCED] circuit manager engaged with the SGB regarding its decision to terminate the partnership and at this point the SGB is not willing to reconsider its decision. The SGB expressed its commitment to exploring alternative options to ensure the continuation of a nutrition programme for the learners,” said Millicent Merton, spokesperson for the department. DM