Queensland schoolchildren ‘starving’ amid cost of living crisis

A school in Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s electorate is one of 174 in Queensland where students are turning up with stale or no lunches.

Abdirisaq, 8, Olivia, 8, and Ubah, 5, enjoying some of the donated food for kids at Richlands East State School, Inala. Picture: Liam Kidston

Hundreds of starving Queensland children are turning up to school with empty lunch boxes or with days-old food amid an escalating cost-of-living crisis.

Teachers at one state school in Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s electorate are even taking matters into their own hands, sharing their lunches or preparing extra food at home to help support their students.

Richlands East State School in Inala is one of 174 schools that has kids on the breadline, with free lunches being provided by not-for-profit Eat Up, which is struggling to keep up with demand across the state.

Eat Up founder Lyndon Galea said there had been a 22 per cent increase in lunch support needed by schools already enrolled in their programs in the last year alone.

He said another 69 Queensland schools were on a waiting list for urgent funding, with demand for help split between metropolitan and regional schools.

“At the moment the waitlist is building faster than our ability to support new schools for the first time,” Mr Galea said.

“We are really fortunate to have some great corporate supporters who back us and give their time – that would really move the needle for us if we could access (state government funding).

“We’ve seen a real spike – building from the back end of the pandemic through this period of inflation and rising living costs.”

Richlands East State School principal Kim Schembri said when they first joined forces with Eat Up they would request 50 cheese sandwiches a week, but are now still running out at 300 sandwiches.

She said teachers had shared their own lunches or prepared extra food for children at home.

“We would start to scrounge around here in our own lunches, give away food,” she said.

“Teachers would make food for the kids

“We would always have a supply of fruit, (muesli) bars but nothing that was really filling for kids.

“We would send out an absentee text and the text would come back from parents saying ‘I don’t have any food, it’s not my shopping day’ or kids would say to teachers ‘Oh I didn’t come to school yesterday because I didn’t have any food’.”

Meanwhile at Kairos Community College north of Brisbane, senior youth worker Emma Burridge said of the 65 students at their Deception Bay campus nearly all are seeking support from Eat Up.

“It is the nature of the students that we have here, (they) don’t have access to food,” she said.

Mr Galea said there was a large percentage of families who had reached out for support for the first time in the past 12 months.

“(The cost-of-living crisis) has pushed a whole new set of families into needing support for the first time,” he said.

“Speaking to individual parents and teachers – that’s when I think it really hits home, it is rarely a matter of negligence or parents not caring.

“To think that kids can fall through the cracks because they are arriving hungry or missing a lunch at school and not able to really perform their best and enjoy school is something that we really want to try and address.”

The Courier-Mail asked Education Minister Grace Grace if the state government would consider supporting Eat Up given their increasing demand.

But she wouldn’t say, instead spruiking $2.7 million in budget funding to expand the school breakfast program as well as other existing support services including free period products, textbook allowances, free and subsidised digital devices and free appointments with GPs.

“I’d urge any family struggling with any education related costs to speak to their local school in the first instance,” she said.

Communities Minister Leeanne Enoch said about 300 schools were already being supported by the free breakfast program, with the $2.7 million estimated to benefit an additional 200 via a grant-based process.

But Greens MP Amy MacMahon said there were hungry kids at every school, not just those selected in the state government’s “limited” breakfast program.

“Kids shouldn’t be going hungry in a state with a $12 billion budget surplus,” she said.

“The Greens are calling for every Queensland kid to get two free healthy meals a day at school, which would go a long way to help families in this cost-of-living crisis.

“We know hungry kids have worse outcomes, not only at school, but into adulthood – the effects of the housing and cost-of-living crisis will linger for generations if we don’t act now.”

Mr Galea said Eat Up host large volunteering events where they prepare thousands of sandwiches.

“Those sandwiches are delivered fresh to schools, we actually give them enough for three weeks with each drop off – the schools then freeze the sandwiches on site,” he said.

“The teachers are the ones who identify the kids and distribute the lunches to them in a way that is sensitive to any potential embarrassment.

“We are also really lucky to have Chobani – they donate yoghurt, Messy Monkeys donate their rice puff bars and philanthropic supporters fundraise for fresh fruit.”