Free meals in ACT schools pilot starts

The Canberra Times

Richardson Primary School students are participating in a trial where all students receive free meals three days per week. It is hoped the one-year trial will help figure out whether it is viable to roll out across all ACT public schools.

Transcript

00:00So learning on a full stomach is what this is all about and it's about providing every

00:13child regardless of their circumstances or their backgrounds, you know, a free meal when

00:18they come to school so that they have a full stomach.

00:21We're piloting the program across a number of schools, Richardson, Gowrie, Melbourne

00:25Copeland School, a college and another primary school to make sure that we have a really

00:30good area to consider and do that sort of, pilot the program, understand how it works

00:37and see how we can make any changes should it need to be in the future.

00:41And yeah, you can see this morning the children are all very excited, they're all sitting

00:45down chatting together, they've picked their fruit and their yogurt and it's just a really

00:50great way for them to start the day.

00:52We've got a range of different things on the menu, so whether it be yogurt cups, fruit

00:56sticks, vegetable sticks, there's pie clots, savoury muffins, sandwiches, wraps, we've

01:01got little hash brown and egg parcels, so it's a great variety of food just to be able

01:06to mix things up.

01:08We've created a menu that we believe is going to be suitable for both primary age and secondary

01:14age students and there's got to be enough balance in there as well.

01:17We want to make sure that the students are not only eating fresh, nutritious food but

01:21it's also food that they are readily wanting to receive and eat.

01:26And we're looking forward to taking that feedback from each of the individual schools to get

01:31an idea of what we need to do to be able to change our menu around if required.

01:36This program is going to be absolutely amazing for our community.

01:40We already run a breakfast club at our little school so it's going to complement what is

01:45already in place here.

01:46But what it also means is that for three days a week, so Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,

01:51our students will receive three very nutritious meals a day.

01:54So they'll have a breakfast opportunity, they'll have a lunch opportunity and a recess opportunity

01:59as well.

02:00So it's fabulous.

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