Photo: The Guardian

Minister for Education James Merlino this morning joined students at Morwell Park Primary School, one of the 500 schools that serve up free and healthy Victorian-produced breakfasts.

School Breakfast Clubs have been providing 50,000 free meals each week at 500 of Victoria’s most disadvantaged schools since 2016.

In 2017, 569,000 kilograms of food was distributed, with an average 33 students attending a breakfast club in every school, every day of operation. This includes 11,834 kilograms of instant oats, 128,840 apples, and 230,719 litres of milk.

Research has shown that since the program started, nine out of ten teachers have seen improved student concentration in the classroom, while seven out of ten teachers have noted improved attendance and more than eight out of ten teachers said they now had better relationships with their students.

The research also found in 2017, 87 per cent of schools felt they were meeting the breakfast needs of their students, a dramatic increase from the 43 per cent who felt they were meeting breakfast needs prior to the program.

The delivery of the $13.7 million breakfast club commitment is another example of how the Andrews Labor Government is tackling disadvantage and making things fair so that all children can reach their potential, regardless of their background or circumstances.

A full list of School Breakfast Clubs can be found at education.vic.gov.au/breakfastclubs.

Volunteering opportunities can be found at: foodbankvictoria.org.au/SBCvolunteers.