Food insecurity and children: An investigation of school breakfast clubs in Melbourne, Victoria

The findings made in this paper have suggested that a proportion of children living in select parts of metropolitan Melbourne are arriving at school hungry. While this country might indeed be facing a child obesity problem, it would be a mistake to disregard the fact that a sizeable number of primary and secondary schools are finding it necessary to set up breakfast club programs to feed their hungry children. These bleak findings are not restricted to Victoria. School breakfast clubs are operating in most other states (Australian Red Cross 2007). Of course, as the school and student case studies reported here have revealed, not all children turn up hungry to school because of financial hardship in the home. Some children attend breakfast club programs because their parents are unable to ensure that fresh quantities of food are available for breakfast, or because there is nobody to make them breakfast. Clearly, the full extent and possible causes of hunger amongst school-aged children in this country remain unknown, because little interest on the issue has to date has been exhibited by governments.