Primary students having a bowl after breakfast news

STUDENTS at Eumemmerring Primary School turned up in their pyjamas yesterday to celebrate the launch of their Good Start Breakfast Club.
Under the program, run by the Red Cross in partnership with Sanitarium, volunteers serve a nutritious breakfast to children who might otherwise go without.
Research shows that up to 40 per cent of Australian schoolchildren regularly skip breakfast and Australian Red Cross Victoria’s services development manager, Elias Lebbos, said breakfast assisted children’s physical, mental and emotional development.
“Children who miss breakfast are less able to concentrate, more prone to fidgeting and find learning difficult by mid-morning.
“Evidence also suggests that children who miss out on a healthy breakfast are more likely to suffer from obesity later in life.”
Mr Lebbos said the Red Cross needed the assistance of the community to run Good Start Breakfast clubs.
He said the introduction of the program at Doveton was the result of a community partnership.
Mr Lebbos said the State Government’s Neighbourhood Renewal program joined Training and Employment Services Australia (TESA) to apply for Community Enterprise Funding, which resulted in the establishment of a community kitchen at Doveton Neighbourhood Centre.
The kitchen provides work experience and training for local people, who make products for sale including Christmas cakes, from which proceeds support the breakfast clubs.
TESA programs manager Stephen Murphy said their own research indicated the importance of breakfast for children.
“By assisting the Red Cross in setting up breakfast clubs in the local area, we’ve been able to attract significant numbers of students to what is arguably the most important meal of the day.”
Eumemmerring Primary School principal Wayne Macdonald said the Red Cross volunteers were positive role models for the students.
He said the social aspect of the Good Start Breakfast Club was showing benefits beyond good nutrition.
“Having the opportunity to talk to other students of all ages at the breakfast club has broken down barriers and has certainly contributed to less bullying and other behavioural problems,” he said.
The other breakfast club in the area operates at Doveton Secondary College.
The Australian Red Cross also hopes to open a club at Eumemmerring Secondary College’s Endeavour Hills campus.