More free school breakfasts – and lunches – on the table as food crisis bites

Free breakfasts and even lunches should be made available to all Victorian students as families continue to feel the pain of rising food costs, and food banks are hit with unprecedented demand, a parliamentary inquiry has recommended.

The year-long bipartisan inquiry into food security also said on Thursday the state should appoint a “minister for food”, push the Commonwealth to introduce tax incentives for food donations, and offer higher support payments for struggling households.

An inquiry has called for expanded school meals programs as food relief charities are inundated with calls for help.Credit: Jason South

Parliament’s legal and social issues committee, which ran the inquiry, found the cost of food in Victoria had soared over the past few years and was continuing to rise, with food insecurity likely to remain a challenge as cost-of-living pressures, slow wage growth and high housing costs continued to batter family budgets.

Foodbank Australia’s most recent Hunger Report in October found that 32 per cent of metropolitan households in Victoria had moderate to severe food insecurity, compared with 37 per cent in the regions. The state-run Victorian Population Health Survey in 2022 showed 8.1 per cent of adults reported running out of food.

“In Victoria, we have seen an increase in both the number of people accessing food from food relief services and the amount of food these services have distributed across the community,” committee chair Trung Luu said.

“The Victorian government’s School Breakfast Clubs Program is an effective program, but it’s under pressure from rising demand.”

The inquiry recommended the Allan government expand the program to be open to all schools that wished to opt in. It is currently available to government schools.

It also asked the government to trial a meal program that would feed students throughout the day, providing breakfast through to lunch, initially targeted at schools with the most disadvantage. Following a review, they recommended the state investigate providing this expanded scheme to all schools in need.

Victorian Council of Social Service chief executive Juanita Pope said one in five children was going to school hungry. Improved access to school meals was a centrepiece of the council’s submission to the inquiry.

“Kids spend the majority of their time at school, so investing in school lunches is one of the best the Victorian government can do to build healthy, happy school communities,” she said.

“We can see that where school lunches have been implemented – both here and overseas – there have been great results. Classroom behaviour, academic performance and students’ mental and physical health has improved.

“No child should go to school hungry and no parent should have to skip meals so their kids can eat.”

The committee also called for a food minister portfolio to be added to cabinet and to establish a Victorian food security committee to support the development of new strategy to tackle the issue across the state.

Other recommendations said the state should push the government to lift support payments for vulnerable households and provide a national tax incentive encouraging farmers and primary producers to donate surplus food to charities.

“There is a direct link between income and food insecurity. That’s why we also believe that the federal government should increase income-support payments – an approach that has been proven to work in the past,” Luu said.

Relief charities such as Foodbank are being inundated with requests for help as grocery prices have soared, prompting a recommendation from the inquiry that the Victorian government provide them with recurrent funding to ensure they can keep up with demand.

As many as 70,000 Victorians are expected to ask for help from Foodbank this Christmas.

Another service, OzHarvest, said its agencies were feeding 981 Victorians a month on average in 2024 – a 31 per cent increase on the six months before.

The Allan government is required to respond to the inquiry within six months. It has been contacted for comment.

A minority report by Greens MP and committee member Aiv Puglielli called for price controls on food and groceries and for the Essential Services Commission to be given power to regulate the sector.

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