Foodbank SA & NT has developed a number of resources to help you provide nutritious and delicious meals. Basic cooking skill Instruction Cards are available to provide tips and tricks to assist you when cooking at home. Proudly supported by BHP.
Foodbank SA & NT has developed a Food Education Program and strategies to help improve and promote healthy eating amongst people accessing food relief through Foodbank Food Hubs. Foodbank is dedicated to helping people in need access nutritious food to support their health and wellbeing.
The Foodbank SA & NT Food Education program aims to empower individuals by:
The primary objective of this program is to assist people to gain the necessary skills, knowledge and confidence to be able to:
Please note: We currently have a wait list for the Variety Foodbank School Lunch Program. To be added to this wait list, please complete the Expression of Interest Form.
Together, they’ve launched the Foodbank Variety School Lunch Program, which will provide free, nutritious lunches to South Australian students experiencing food insecurity, right in their school environment.
The program will support the most vulnerable children across South Australia over the next 12 months, ensuring they have access to the food they need to learn, grow and thrive.
More than 100 schools have initially registered for the program with more than 4,000 of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged students expected to benefit from the program in the next 6 months.
Foodbank SA CEO Greg Pattinson said the partnership with Variety SA will be the largest school lunch program to help kids in this state.
“Foodbank SA were receiving an increasing number of reports from schools participating in the Foodbank SA School Breakfast Program about students who had little to no food during the school day. Some of these schools were requesting extra food supplies to distribute to students who were identified as being most in need. We are hearing of stories of children as young as 5, who have no recess or school lunch or children that are physically unwell because they are not getting enough of the right food.” Said Mr Pattinson
The partnership between Foodbank and Variety is the coming together of two respected charities that will have a real impact, that is more than food. It is the future of our state. Importantly, the Foodbank Variety School Lunch Program will be a major step in fulfilling our mission ‘to end hunger in South Australia’.
Variety SA CEO Mark McGill said this program will have far reaching effects on the wellbeing of kids in need in both metro and regional schools across the state.
“Variety is thrilled to be partnering once again with Foodbank to fill the lunchboxes of kids in need who would usually go without.
The $450,000 of funding from Variety SA will establish a state-wide Foodbank Variety School Lunch Program for the most in-need schools in South Australia. This is set to impact more than one hundred schools who have been identified as having the highest levels of unmet need across South Australia.” Said Mr McGill.
Approximately 50% of these schools are metropolitan and 50% are regional and remote schools, with more than 4,000 students that will access the lunch program in the next 6 months. More than 50% of the schools identified are from Category 1 or 2 but many other schools have demonstrated unmet need for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in their school communities.
The Foodbank Variety School Lunch Program will be more than food. This program will have a positive impact on factors such as physical and mental health, social skills, concentration, behaviour, attendance and academic outcomes. The lunches will be offered in discreet packaging and include a healthy recess and lunch (including fresh fruit). The program will also help educate young people about the importance of healthy eating and provides them with nutritious lunches to help fill rumbling tummies.
The Foodbank Variety School Lunch Program is an extension of more than 550 school programs including school breakfasts that Foodbank offer across the state. The program is open to those schools currently registered for the Foodbank SA School Breakfast Program that participated in the initial assessment.
If your school is interested in establishing a breakfast program, would like to know more or would be interested in a presentation from our Education Programs Manager about Foodbank, please call Eleisha Golding on 08 8351 1136.
Alternatively, fill in the form below and we will get in touch soon.
Foodbank SA & NT have a Foodbank SA & NT Child Safe Policy, in line with our commitment to keeping children safe.
Please note: We currently do not have any student volunteering or school group volunteering opportunities available. Students who would like to support Foodbank SA & NT can run Food Drives or Fundraise to help support Foodbank SA & NT. Have a look at Foodbank SA & NT’s School page to see all that your school can participate in!
Foodbank SA & NT has identified that students and families facing food insecurity also struggle to afford personal hygiene products including period products. Schools engaged in the Foodbank School Breakfast Program have highlighted that ‘period poverty’ – a lack of access to sanitary products can lead to young women missing school.
“The Young Women’s Program allows students to access items as required for period care and we believe this improves student attendance (decrease in days away due to not being able to access items) but also supports students to feel confident when they are at school as result of having access to other items to support their personal hygiene.”
“Some students don’t have access to personal hygiene support at home. This is especially difficult for girls with limited access to pads, cleansing aids etc. Often girls in these situations are too embarrassed to ask for support from teachers or other staff. To have packs we could donate to young girls, to try and lessen this embarrassment, would mean the world to them.”
Foodbank SA & NT has been running the Young Women’s Program since 2018, distributing sanitary packs to young women in need via schools registered for the School Breakfast Program. Foodbank SA & NT prepare small kits of essential period products for young women along with a few personal care products. Aiming to make life a little easier for young women in need so they can continue to attend school. Each pack contains approximately a weeks’ worth of period products (pads) in a discreet toiletry bag along with, soap, deodorant hair ties and a small pack of tissues. South Australian schools can order the packs to have on hand to provide to students needing support with period products.
“As a school, I want to say a big thank you for supplying the girl’s packs. They are brilliant!”
If your school is interested in becoming part of this program, please complete this expression of interest form.
* The Young Womens Program is currently only available in South Australia.
More than 1 in 4 South Australian children have experienced hunger in the last 12 months. Foodbank SA & NT has identified that children suffering food insecurity often require more than just breakfast if they are to be given an equal start in life they deserve.
Through consultation with schools, agencies and the community it has become apparent that a high number of children are not eating lunch due to a lack of food availability. This lack of adequate food has a significant impact on their school day, overall attendance and learning capabilities as well as their growth and development.
The regular provision of healthy and tasty lunches as well as the provision of a nutritious breakfast at school means that children have the opportunity to fill their rumbling tummies, feel better from eating good food and to be healthy and happy.
The School Lunch Program reinforces the good work being done by many schools that aim to encourage and support healthy eating. Well-fed students will be easier to teach, making the schools and teachers also beneficiaries of the Program.
The Foodbank Variety School Lunch Program allows students to prepare healthy lunch options alongside the School Breakfast Program.
Students who attend breakfast club have the opportunity to make a sandwich for their lunch and also pick up fruit and/or muesli bars. Available foods include bread, ham, cheese, margarine, vegemite, muesli bars and fruit. The program not only enables students to access food, but to also helps them develop food preparation skills.
The Foodbank Variety School Lunch Program will be offered to eligible schools in South Australia who access the Foodbank SA & NT School Breakfast Program.
The Program is open to all students who do not have lunch in participating schools. Some students may be identified by teachers and encouraged to go to breakfast club to make their lunch.
Foodbank SA & NT’s School Breakfast Program helps to provide healthy, nutritious food to children who turn up at school hungry. The Program also helps schools to provide fruit bowls in classrooms and common areas for students to consume at school.
Foodbank SA & NT provides breakfast foods to schools free of charge in all regions of South Australia and the Northern Territory and also provides food to other charities for their school breakfast programs.
Breakfast items provided free of charge to registered schools in South Australia and the Northern Territory through the School Breakfast Program include cereal, long-life milk, canned fruit, Vegemite, jam, fresh fruit, and bread.
All South Australian and Northern Territorian schools are welcome to participate in a Foodbank Food Drive. Food donations will go to your local Foodbank in Edwardstown, Christies Beach, Woodville, Davoren Park, Berri, Mount Gambier, Whyalla, Alice Springs or Darwin.
Food drives are a great way to get your school community involved in helping people in need.
At Foodbank SA & NT we are all for the community coming together and helping each other out. Registering your Food Drive shows our future generations that there is support for them should they ever need it and helps students to gain an understanding and different perspective of a person’s environment.
Hunger affects more than 150,000+ South Australians and Territorians every month, with one third of them being children. They are families like yours, they might live in your street. But because they suffer in silence, you would never know.
If your school hasn’t yet registered for a Food Drive please register, so we can provide you with the support you need to run a successful food drive.
All donations are weighed and your school will be advised how much they have collected.
To register please complete the form below.
Once registered you will receive all of the documents you need to help you with your School Food Drive, including posters, flyers and messages to send home to parents.
You may also like to read through our Food Drive FAQ including access to posters to support your food drive.
Application formHunger is one of Australia’s best kept secrets, yet it impacts more than 150,000 South Australian and Northern Territorians every month. One third of these are children.
Running a Christmas Food drive is a great way for organisations and schools to help supply the non-perishable items that are always needed by Foodbank and especially at Christmas time. Our most wanted items are those everyone has in their pantries. All food donations of in date shelf stable products are welcome.
All South and Northern Australian organisations, individuals and schools are welcome to participate. Food donations will go to your local Foodbank locations across South Australia and the Northern Territory.
All donations are weighed and you will be advised how much they have collected.
To register please complete the form below.You may also like to read through our Christmas Food Drive FAQ including access to posters to support your food drive.
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