Food Share sees spike in demand from schools as cost of living crisis bites

Warrnambool and District Food Share has reported a "huge" increase in the amount of food going out to schools to feed vulnerable children.

Food Share chief executive officer Amanda Hennessy said it had seen a spike in distribution to schools compared to the same time last year, attributing it to increased cost of living.

"It's not just the breakfast, lunch and fresh fruit programs, it's also schools tapping into emergency hampers as well," Ms Hennessy said.

"They're seeing families who are needing emergency food relief. There is definitely an increase and the families may not go elsewhere for the assistance."

She said while many schools provided breakfast for students, some were supplying lunch as well, which some had been doing for a number of years.

"They're seeing more children at their breakfast club, or a couple of conversations I've had is they expanded to include lunch programs because they want to make sure kids have something substantial to eat at lunch before going home."

Ms Hennessy said while some schools had seen a significant increase, demand at others was consistent with the same time last year.

One regional school has introduced a breakfast club in the past 12 months to help its families.

She said most schools picked up supplied food once a week and then topped up on fresh fruit during the week, if needed.

"Schools come in from about 7.30am to just before 9am to pick up their breakfast, lunch, snack and fresh fruit program produce," she said.

Food Share services both state and private primary, secondary and special education schools.

"We have got regional schools," she said. "All our local area schools are registered with us but not all of them tap into it because some will have their own resources, but the majority of them are tapping into us for whatever product and produce they need."

One school said it had "quite a lot of kids who don't have lunch or snacks" and the food helped them provide lunches too.

"We're no longer just teachers, we're carers too," the teacher said.

Warrnambool Primary School wellbeing teacher Tonya Ferguson, who helps to co-ordinate the twice-weekly breakfast club said demand had doubled over the past few weeks.

"Where we used to a have a lot of the younger kids, a lot of the older kids are coming now because I think the stigma has gone out of it," Mrs Ferguson said.

"We don't discriminate, they're all invited. Years ago when we tried to do it we used to try and target the at-need kids but they were the ones who weren't coming. If we invite them all then they might come with their friends."

She said its breakfast club started before the COVID-19 pandemic, but "this year it's really picked up".

"We've always made lunches here but we're just getting more and more since the tightening of interest rates and cost of living," Mrs Ferguson said. "We've noticed a lot more."

Warrnambool Primary School works as an agency for parents in need of food, as do many schools across the region, dropping food to individual families.

Warrnambool East Primary School principal Marina Milich said between 60 to 70 students attended its breakfast club, which runs twice a week.

She said the healthy start to the day could lead to increased attendance rates and better learning conditions, while also being an opportunity for children to socialise.

"Most schools put it on but it's for everybody," Mrs Milich said. "It's more of a social gathering for kids, some are having a second breakfast.

"It's not exclusive to certain cohorts. It's open to everyone and we find for most kids it's an opportunity to socialise, to catch-up and start their day."

The Victorian government said the school breakfast clubs program sought to address the impact disadvantage can have on education outcomes by offering free and healthy food for students in 1000 Victorian government schools.

"Research shows a child's ability to concentrate in class, self-regulate and learn is negatively impacted if they are hungry," it said.

"It has been reported that the rising cost of living makes it increasingly difficult particularly for low-income families and families experiencing disadvantage to provide enough healthy food for all the family each week."

School's eligibility for the program is determined using the Student Family Occupation Education index data. This provides an accurate measure of disadvantage.

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