RBA interest rate rises are leaving children hungry, stealing food, Foodbank charity warns

School principals have been calling charities to help feed students so hungry they are stealing food from classmates’ lunch boxes.

The Foodbank charity is providing free breakfasts to hungry children in 3000 Australian schools, as the cost of living drives hunger among kids.

School principals have been calling charities to help feed students so hungry they are stealing food from classmates’ lunch boxes.

Warning of an alarming correlation between interest rate rises and hunger, the charity Foodbank has revealed that more students are showing up to school without any lunch.

A NSW primary school recently asked the charity for help after teachers realised some young students were asking to go to the toilet as an excuse to rummage through classmates’ bags in search of food.

And a high school principal reported that some teenagers were feeling faint from hunger during lessons.

Foodbank chief executive Brianna Casey said 3000 Australian schools had already signed up to receive free breakfasts for kids.

“We are deeply concerned that the cost-of-living crisis is having more of an impact on vulnerable families, and we’re seeing more people needing food relief more often,’’ she said. “We are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of schools across Australia, asking for a partnership.

“We’re hearing reports from schools of children stealing lunch from other children’s lunch boxes.

“It’s become common for Food­bank to make hampers available in staffrooms or canteens. The consequences are really alarming from a health perspective and for educational outcomes – we can’t expect children to concentrate in class and behave well when they are so hungry they’ve tipped into ‘hangry’ before the day has started.’’

Ms Casey said she had recently met Reserve Bank of Australia economists to “implore’’ them to stop raising interest rates, after 12 rates rises in just over a year.

She showed the RBA staff Foodbank data linking a jump in requests for food relief to every rate rise over the past year.

The RBA left the cash rate at 4.1 per cent on Tuesday, but warned of further rate rises unless inflation slowed.

Ms Casey said rate rises were making housing more expensive, not only for renters but for homeowners who were taking on extra jobs to meet rising mortgage repayments. “The cash rate increase is an incredibly blunt instrument and we know that it hurts people struggling to put a meal on the table due to the rising cost of living, be it groceries, energy or housing costs,’’ she said.

“If we see another interest rate rise, we’ll be bracing or a further increase in demand for food relief.

“When these economic shocks happen, vulnerable households experience them first, the worst and for the longest. It’s just cruel.’’

Ms Casey said free school breakfasts were the best meal of the day for an increasing number of students from working-poor families struggling to pay rent, mortgages and power bills.

“When we look at demand for school breakfasts, it’s not from children who slept in – it is from children where there simply isn’t anything at home for them to eat,’’ she said.

“They don’t have the energy to sit down and learn, let alone run around in the playground.

“The harsh reality is that tonight, half a million households will struggle to put a meal on the table.’’

Ms Casey said parents were doing their best to feed their children.

“Parents are not eating dinner – saying they have already eaten at work – when the reality is they don’t have enough to feed the family and are putting their kids first,’’ she said.

“Many of these adults have a job, and a side hustle as well as an Uber driver or other gig work.

“These aren’t stories from other countries – they’re from our own communities.

“We have to do better by these children.’’