Foodbank fills student needs

Three children in every classroom are likely to go to school hungry, a national report out today reveals.

Foodbank Australia's Hunger in the Classroom report found that two-thirds of teachers reported children were arriving at school without having breakfast.

On a typical day, three children in every class arrived hungry, leading to them losing more than two hours learning time.

More than 400 WA schools operate Foodbank breakfast clubs that serve about 17,000 children a week, with an average 62 students from each school using the service.

Foodbank WA chief executive Greg Hebble said demand had increased, with many schools now operating a formal breakfast program five days a week instead of two or three days.

"We know from our broader relief work that thousands of WA families have been doing it tough for a long time now and at the moment it's getting worse," he said.

"As a society we want to give every child the chance to engage positively with the education system, not watch them suffer because their family might have fallen on hard times."

The report, based on a survey of more than 500 primary and secondary school teachers, also found that students at public schools were three times more likely to go to school without breakfast than those at private schools.

Half of students who missed breakfast had learning difficulties or misbehaved.

More than 80 per cent of teachers said their workload increased when they had hungry, distracted students in their classes.

Two-thirds of teachers said their students were coming to school hungry, with one in four reporting the problem was growing worse.

The problem was more prevalent in rural areas (72 per cent) than in capital cities (63 per cent).

Mr Hebble said school breakfast programs were not about providing a safety net for parents who shirked their responsibilities.

"If providing breakfast gets kids to school and equips them with the fuel they need to learn and thrive, we're doing our job," he said.