Childcare centres spend as little as 65 cents a day per child on food

A shocking report has found some childcare centres are spending less than a dollar a day on food per child. See what kids are really being fed.

Childcare centres are feeding children for as little as 65 cents a day, with kids going hungry, a shocking report reveals.

Some childcare care directors and cooks reveal they never spend more than $5 a day per child on food, with the average spend just $2.15 which also covered snacks.

A News Corp investigation has uncovered examples of the types of food children are being served including a plate of bread and butter for afternoon tea and plates of cheap “filler” foods such as pasta, with no protein or nutritional value.

Some of the food being offered to children in childcare centres.

One in five directors and cooks who responded to a United Workers Union survey thought the food budget at their centre was not enough, while 60 per cent of cooks said that they have bought food for children in their care out of their own pocket.

In one private Facebook group, where childcare centre cooks vent over their meagre budgets, one fumed: “I feed my dog more a day than the budget I get. If parents knew they’d be appalled”.

Dietitian Bonnie Searle, who was part of a research team from the University of Queensland observing food served at five childcare centres in Brisbane, said they witnessed children asking for seconds, but there was no food left.

She said sometimes the children did not get what was advertised on the menu, with a hot meal replaced with something completely different, or it was greatly exaggerated.

Bonnie Searle and Justin Cassidy with seven-year-old Elijah and four-year-old Toby. Picture: Richard Walker

One example was a menu boasting “gourmet sandwiches” that turned out to be white bread with a jam or vegemite filling.

In some cases uneaten chopped fruit from morning break, would be brought out for afternoon tea and the banana would be “brown and slimy”.

“A big plate of fruit is not going to keep children full,” Ms Searle said.

“They need some fat and protein. The food groups we did not see enough of were vegetables and meat.”

She said children who don’t get enough food, or the right types of food were not able to regulate their emotions, which impacts their ability to learn.

University of Queensland Early Childhood Education and Care Professor Karen Thorpe said her team of researchers had been studying food quality at thousands of centres across Australia for many years and found children who needed the highest quality of care were getting the lowest.

She said some children were simply not getting enough food.

“If you are hungry you are not going to learn,” she said.

“If you get poor quality food, you become obese and you are not going to live for as long.

“The purpose of early education should be to set a child up for life.”

UWU Director of Early Education Helen Gibbons, who released the survey findings in a report called Children Going Hungry, said the amount of money allocated to food budgets revealed by workers was “a disgrace”.

“How can $0.65 possibly be enough to provide adequate nutrition for a developing child?” she said.

“Parents in Australia pay some of the highest out-of-pocket costs … yet many centres, especially among for-profit providers, are making a profit while children go hungry.”

Ms Gibbons argued childcare centres needed to be held accountable, especially those making big profits.

“Every day early childhood educators work hard to do the impossible; provide healthy nutritious food for the children in their care without enough funds,” she said.

“Now educators are speaking out about how taxpayer funding and parents’ fees are being taken away from food budgets and funnelled into profits.

“Educators who cannot stand to see children without enough to eat are buying food staples out of their own low wages, in a sector that is unsustainable for workers, children and parents.

“This cannot be allowed to continue. Parents deserve to know how much of their fees are being spent on feeding their children.”