M&S (5)

Source: M&S

The Kids Eat Free offer is running for an extra week this year

Marks & Spencer has brought back its free meal for kids offer to help families struggling with rising living costs during the summer holidays.

The Kids Eat Free offer, available in all M&S cafés nationwide, includes a free Kids’ Munch Menu breakfast or lunch when customers spend £5 or more in a single transaction on food or drink for adults.

The retailer’s popular offer is returning this Monday, 25 July, and running until 12 August.

M&S has also rolled out a new hot breakfast menu for children, alongside its hot and cold lunch menus, to expand the offering available to parents and adult supervisors.

A Kids’ Munch Menu breakfast main plus drink costs £2.95, while a Kids’ Munch Menu lunch main plus snack and drink costs £3.95.

Breakfast options include pancakes with blueberries and honey and dippy egg and soldiers. Lunch options include jacket potato with beans and sausages, and ham and cheese toastie.

All kids’ meals are also eligible for a free piece of fruit.

“We know parents already have enough on their plate over the school holidays, without having to worry about filling everyone else’s plates three times a day too,” said M&S Food marketing & hospitality director Sharry Cramond.

“Our new kids’ menu is not only absolutely delicious, made with the best M&S ingredients, but we’ve worked really hard to make sure it’s also exceptional value in a year where we’re all feeling the pinch.”

Cramond said the offer is running for an extra week this year, and that M&S expected to give away around half a million kids meals for free this year through this initiative, which runs across school holidays and half terms.

The grocer joins a swathe of other major supermarkets ramping up efforts to help families tackle the cost of living crisis during particularly difficult periods such as the summer break.

On Monday (25 July), Tesco also announced it was offering free kids’ meals to Clubcard holders who spent a minimum of 60p on a purchase at one of its cafés until end of August.

Both announcements came just days after the UK government unveiled an array of deals and promotions it struck with major retailers under its Help for Households scheme.