New school lunch program launched in Moe to tackle food insecurity

A new national school lunch program has been launched in Moe, Victoria, with the aim of tackling child hunger and improving student wellbeing. The program, called Spoonfull, provides every student at participating schools with a healthy lunch every day.

At Elizabeth Street Primary School, where the program was officially launched, students are being treated to a variety of healthy foods, including hot lunches. "I love the food, it's amazing," student Victoria says. "My favourite has been the lasagne and butter chicken, and I really like the wraps they make. They give options to us that if we don't like a food, then we can just try it and I just love how they do that."

The program is the result of a partnership between the school and the charity Eat Up, which has been delivering free school lunches to children in need for 15 years. Eat Up founder Lyndon Galea said the Spoonfull program was designed to offer a more sustainable solution for schools to support students long-term. "This is different to our core model, [where] we have on-demand lunches, in terms of the cheese sandwiches, yoghurts and recess snacks," Mr Galea said.

The school's wellbeing officer, Carol O'Reilly, said she had seen a huge improvement in students since the program was introduced. "I could see a need. I've been at this school for 17 years and I noticed running [the school's] breakfast club that kids are coming in without sandwiches," Ms O'Reilly said. "Now I know they're going out for recess with a full belly."

School principal Ian Frost said the program had a positive impact on what students eat and had led to improved wellbeing and academic performance. "I think it's a very respectful way of helping them to be their best self," Mr Frost said.

Eat Up hopes to roll out similar pilots in two additional schools, with Mr Galea saying it would be "phenomenal for Australia and something our country can really take a big step forward [in]".