Labor promises to expand school meals program

ACT Labor has promised to provide free breakfast and lunch to kids in 20 government schools if re-elected in October, based on “nothing but positive feedback” from a trial that’s been running across five schools since July.

Chief Minister and candidate for Kurrajong Andrew Barr described the ‘Meals in Schools’ program as the “continuation and expansion of a policy direction that we have been pursuing for some time”, designed to “reduce inequality and improve educational performance”.

“Learning on an empty stomach can be really hard,” he said this week during a press conference at the Richardson Primary School in Tuggeranong, one of the schools involved in the trial.

“We recognise this is a societal challenge and that we can make a difference through investment in this area.”

The program was first promised in the lead-up to the 2020 ACT election, followed by plans to hold a pilot, and was announced in March 2023 with an expected cost of $1.4 million.

However, it was only this year that the government allocated $4 million in the budget to run a 12-month trial, beginning in July.

At the time, ACT Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development Yvette Berry said the original plan was “a little bit too bespoke” and “it wasn’t very practical”.

“We’re now looking at this program being universal and not targeted at just children who might have greater needs,” she said.

Students at Narrabundah Early Childhood School, Gilmore Primary, Gold Creek School Senior Campus (years 7 to 10), Melba Copland Secondary School and College (years 10 to 12), and Richardson Primary have been receiving three meals a week since then, compiled and delivered by Embrace Disability, a local catering group that employs people with disabilities.

“We’ve got yoghurt cups, fruit sticks, vegetable sticks, pies, savoury muffins, sandwiches, wraps, little hash brown and egg parcels, so it’s a great variety of food,” Embrace Disability director Matt Morrissey said in July.

“We’ve created a menu we believe is suitable for both primary and secondary age students … and that caters for all sorts of allergen types, whether that’s gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free.”

While there hasn’t been any formal evaluation of the trial, ACT Labor says the early signs are good enough, and they’re confident they can take it further.

“I have heard nothing but positive feedback from families about this program,” Ms Berry said this week.

“We’ve had lots of feedback from the young people, teachers and parents about … what a difference it’s making to families’ and children’s lives. There are fewer learning disruptions in the classroom because students aren’t hungry, there’s more flexibility for parents – they’re able to get out the door quicker, particularly if they have a number of children they’re trying to get ready.”

The expanded program will cover 20 public schools, or 8300 students, and is said to cost $32 million.

There’s no confirmation which schools will be included in the roll-out, except that it will include a cross-section of socio-economic demographics and take into consideration what other food services, like canteens, are already available at each one.

Some of the funding will also go towards providing additional staffing.

“We don’t want to put extra pressure on the workforce,” Ms Berry explained.

“We want to make sure we’ve got additional staff in place, so some of this funding goes towards providing a staff member for 2.5 days a week to be able to support a school to roll out this program.”

Despite this, Ms Berry is confident the costs won’t blow out this time.

“That’s why we ran the pilot to understand where the costs were. We think we’ve got it right.”