And even more are going without, according to Foodbank’s Hunger in the Classroom report, which reveals three children in every classroom are turning up to school hungry.

This can have a big impact on learning outcomes for children. Teachers estimate that the average student loses more than two hours a day of learning time when they come to school hungry.

Every kilogram of food given to a child through a school breakfast program provides a long-term return on investment of $110.

Foodbank Queensland CEO Michael Rose said a $1 million State Government grant over four years would help provide food allocations to a further 62 schools and boost the drive to stamp out hunger in the classroom.

“We already have over 230 school breakfast programs. But there are many more schools in Queensland we don’t service,” Mr Rose said.

“In previous years many who were affected by food insecurity sought assistance once or twice a year. Now we find three in five food insecure people are seeking assistance up to once a month.

“These are working families, pensioners and those with disabilities. More often, it is people in our street not just those on the street that are food insecure.”

February is a particularly tough time for families struggling to make ends meet, and this is when food becomes a “discretionary item” according to Mr Rose.

“Back to school can actually be a very stressful time for many families for two reasons. Firstly of course returning to school follows the Christmas season when maybe there was a little extra spending just to make it special. As always, the electricity, rent or rate bills might fall due. Secondly, comes the inherent costs of returning to school such as shoes, books, bags and new uniforms. Unfortunately, this can cause food to become a discretionary item.”

School breakfast program ambassador and rugby league legend Petero Civoniceva said learning and understanding the true extent of hunger in the classroom was “heart-breaking”.

“As a father of four I know the importance of having a good start to the day with a good breakfast,” he said.

“When kids arrive hungry they find it difficult to concentrate and they can be lethargic affecting their performance and creating behavioural problems, sometimes impacting the whole classroom, so a school breakfast can and does have a huge impact.

“I just want to ensure that (Queensland children) are given every opportunity.

“I think, for myself, growing up I had some really good role models in my life, and now it’s my turn.”

The former Broncos front-rower visited Deception Bay State High School’s breakfast program last week where up to 100 children access food assistance every day, and shared his secret to on-field success with students. Civoniceva said he always had banana and honey on toast ahead of every match.

The school recently had a shed transformed and fitted out as a kitchen and support room, which chaplain Russell Mann said was helping to ensure students had access to food and assistance.

“Often the first break is the first meal of the day for these kids. We have toast and cereal for them,” school chaplain Russell Mann said.

“It’s not just about making sure the kids have what they need, but it’s a place where they can settle down and relax.”

The school also supplied food hampers to families in the community each Friday from its kitchen breakfast program.

Cheese toasties and ­banana smoothies were an appetising start to the day at Cannon Hill State School’s breakfast program. More than a third of the 260-pupil school access breakfast club once a week according to volunteer co-ordinator Bec Driscoll.

“We serve cereal ... whatever fresh fruit we get in from Foodbank and we do the eggs from our chickens, cheese toasties, banana smoothies,” she said.

“Occasionally we’ve gone through 13 loaves of bread in one morning, and that is just cheese toasties.”

School breakfast programs rely on volunteers such as Ms Driscoll, who said it was a rewarding role.

“I love watching the kids. They all sit down together, they’re all responsible for serving themselves, they clean up their tables afterwards. It’s like one great big family. And they chat and they play and it’s a bit of a social thing for them before school. And sending them off with happy tummies.”

Foodbank Queensland CEO Michael Rose said while a State Government grant would go a long way, most of the school breakfast program funding came from private donors.

Mr Rose said the funding allowed the food assistance not-for-profit to allocate the money to where it was needed, to help provide staples to support agencies across the state.

As part of our investigation into hunger in the classroom, Quest Community News took a behind-the-scenes look at one of Brisbane’s most iconic and historic manufacturing factories at South Brisbane.

Parmalat, who provide Pauls full cream milk to Foodbank’s school breakfast programs, has been at the South Brisbane site since 1933 (as Pauls Polar Perfections).

Parmalat provides Pauls full cream milk to Foodbank’s school breakfast ­programs.

Up to 44,000L of white milk is packed per hour at the manufacturing site, where there are more than 20 kilometres of pipes transporting the milk products from tanks through to the lines where they are bottled.

We followed the 15-minute journey from the bottle being blown on-site from resin, through to a full milk bottle in the cold room.

Parmalat operations trainer Pat Tiernan has worked at the South Brisbane site for more than 20 years and said there had been significant changes to the process over that time.

Mr Tiernan explained the “federal line” would take an hour-and-a-half to fill 7200 2L bottles of Pauls full cream milk, which would then be dispatched to as far away as Warwick and Gympie.

Our milk bottle then went from cold storage to Foodbank at Morningside, where it was dispatched to Deception Bay State High School and poured on cereal at the school breakfast with Petero Civoniceva.