Call for help as Corio kids go without breakfasts

Peter Farago
CORIO Primary School needs volunteers to ensure students eat breakfast before the morning bell.
Principal Mary Hutchison said the school’s Red Cross Good Start Breakfast Club had operated up to five days a week since 2006 but a drop in volunteers had cut the program to three mornings.
“We were getting children coming to school who had not had breakfast,” Ms Hutchison said.
“You can tell when a child hasn’t had breakfast – they wane so quickly. Even in the first two-hour session we weren’t getting productive results.”
Ms Hutchison said the breakfast program was getting results.
“I know three children who attend breakfast club on a regular basis. They’re back to being much more settled, more focused in class,” she said.
“It’s also having a positive impact on relationships between students, teachers and parents. It’s actually improved attendance.”
Ms Hutchison said older children were taking on leadership roles, while other kids had started arriving in the playground before class.
Some had tried to rope in parents to volunteer when the breakfast club was closed, she said.
School social worker Linda Taylor said the breakfast club served cereal, toast, fruit, boiled eggs and occasional delights like pancakes.
The school needed at least five volunteers to run the club five days a week, including two for Tuesdays and at least one on Thursdays.
Ms Taylor asked potential volunteers to phone her on 5275 1430 or Red Cross’s Bernard Leavold on 5223 8700.