At a primary school in Melbourne’s west, a morning delivery of free sandwiches, fresh fruit and yoghurt is underway.
The food will nourish a growing number of students who turn up each day without a packed lunch. Teachers say some students arrive without eating breakfast, too.
“Demand for free meals has probably increased by about 40 per cent this year and we also do notice a peak later in the week, at the end of a shopping cycle for families,” Movelle Primary School principal Karen Wood says.
“So, Thursdays and Fridays are our busiest days, when we expect more students to turn up hungry.”
Crates of pre-made sandwiches ready for delivery. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
It’s one reason this primary school runs a breakfast club where up to 60 students eat for free every morning.
“We have toasted sandwiches, fruit cuts, pots of fresh milk, yoghurt and juices every day,” Wood says. “The nutritional value is great for the children.”
Across the country, studies show that most school students do bring lunch. But many home-prepared lunchboxes contain low-nutrition foods.
“Healthy food is more expensive at the moment for families. So a lot of kids are having what I would class as junk in their lunchbox,” Wood says.
“Families are under a lot of financial hardship. It’s across the whole of Victoria, but especially in our school catchment.”
Eat Up founder Lyndon Galea (left) with principal Karen Wood. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
The monthly Consumer Price Index, which measures changes in prices of goods and services, rose 3.5 per cent in the 12 months to July 2024, down from 3.8 per cent in June, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
However, at the same time fruit and vegetable prices have risen by 7.5 per cent.
And experts say those rising costs mean fewer families are able to afford an ideal school lunchbox.
“We estimate it costs families up to $50 per week per child to put healthy food in a lunchbox,” says Professor Rebecca Golley from Flinders University. “If you have several children, that really bumps up the grocery bills.
“Children eat about half their daily food intake at school and we know that this is mostly coming from high density, high fat, high sugar, high salt food. And really we know that these are cheap foods.
“So, Australia’s cost-of-living crisis may be a tipping point. It’s time to look at how we support children’s development and learning by improving the quality of food that they have at school.”
A routine delivery of Eat Up free food. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
At Movelle Primary School, the free food is provided by Eat Up, a not-for-profit based in Melbourne.
The service is run by Lyndon Galea, who started delivering school meals in 2013 in Shepparton, northern Victoria.
“I saw an article about students arriving at local schools without food, so every lunchtime they were missing out on meals,” Galea says.
“I was totally shocked, and I wanted to help. It felt personal because it was happening in my hometown.
“So, I started [feeding students] from my mum’s kitchen table. I took what I could from her cupboards: bread, some cheese, mushrooms, and we bought some extra loaves and then together we made a hundred sandwiches for our first two schools.”
Eat Up founder Lyndon Galea delivering food in Melbourne. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
Eat Up has since grown exponentially and now supports more than 900 schools across the country. But Galea says it’s getting harder to meet rising demand.
“We’ve seen a steep increase in need, almost a 50 per cent rise across the country in the past financial year,” Galea says. “And we hear directly from schools that the cost-of living-crisis is really putting enormous pressure on families.
“Many are struggling to pay bills, even when both parents are working, If they don’t pay the electricity bill, the lights turn off. If they don’t pay rent they have to move. So often, food is the thing that gets cut most significantly.
“And sadly that leads to kids arriving at school without any food.”
Tara Diversi from Dietitians Australia. Source: Supplied / Dietitions Australia
The impact of hunger on learning is a focus for Dietitians Australia.
“Children who miss out on lunch at school are less unable to concentrate, which means that they have lower levels of focus and being able to learn,” says president Tara Diversi.
“Missing meals can also lead to disruptive behaviour and also increase the risk of chronic disease in the future,” she says.
Dietitians Australia says a healthy lunchbox should contain a range of vegetables and fruits as well as foods made with whole grain cereals and grains, and also some type of dairy.
“When children eat a healthy lunchbox, they can access the nutrients that they need and that helps them to focus,” Diversi says.
One of Eat Up’s five delivery vans on the road. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
Working to improve learning outcomes, since 2013 Eat Up has delivered more than 3.5 million meals and of those, one million were dropped off in the past year alone.
“We have five delivery vans operating across the country. They each clock up upwards of 30,000km annually,” Galea says.
“But food deliveries would not be possible without donated ingredients and an army of volunteers making the sandwiches. In fact, we work with about 15,000 volunteers each year – it’s massive!
“And I am just so, so grateful for every individual, every team member, every donor that’s allowed these outcomes to be possible. It’s the ultimate collaboration.”
Volunteers making sandwiches at an office in Melbourne. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
Among those proud to volunteer their time making sandwiches is the CEO of KCL Law in Melbourne, Davina Onas. She is among 20 KCL staff who routinely make lunches for school delivery at their legal offices.
“It’s definitely team building. We started working with Eat Up in 2016 and we were the very first corporate organisation to get involved,” she says.
“It’s great to give back to the community by financially supporting an organisation, which we do as well. But to actually be involved in the sandwich making is an immediate effect and it’s a really great feeling for everyone involved.”
Eat Up CEO Elise Cook with crates of sandwiches ready for delivery. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
At a single event, the KCL Law volunteers turned out more than 2,000 sandwiches, all gratefully received by Eat Up CEO Elise Cook.
“Too many kids are going to school hungry, and we are here to feed them,” she says. “By providing meals we are helping them get the most out of their school day, and improve their educational outcomes.”
While charity efforts like this are valued, Australian academics are calling on governments to do more.
“Australia is one of the few countries in the world that is not providing a national school meals program,” Professor Danielle Gallegos from Queensland University of Technology says.
“If we don’t improve school nutrition we will see more children fall behind their full potential. Eventually our economic productivity will also go down.
“So, if Australia is going to be at the forefront internationally, we are going to have start thinking about what a school meals program looks like and not just for those families that are doing it tough, but for all families.”
Canada recently announced a new National School Food Program. With an investment of $1 billion over five years, it aims to feed an additional 400,000 students every year, beyond those served by existing school food programs.
Lyndon Galea is passionate about providing healthy meals. Source: SBS / Scott Cardwell
Hoping to learn from similar schemes, Eat Up Founder Lyndon Galea will leave this month on an international fact-finding mission.
“I’m the fortunate recipient of a Churchill Fellowship, which will fund me to travel to countries which are global leaders of in-school models,” Galea says.
“Over several weeks I will visit Japan, Italy, the UK and the USA to learn what they do, in the hope of supporting Australia’s highest needs kids in a similar manner in the future.”
National Child Protection Week is marked from 1-7 September .
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