Demand grows for breakfast at Mandurah schools
More than 115,000 breakfasts were dished out to school students across Mandurah last year - and the need is growing, according to West Aus Crisis Care chief executive Lynn Rodgers.
Mrs Rodgers said healthy breakfast clubs were well-attended at seven primary schools, eight education support centres, four high schools and one adult learning centre in the Mandurah area.
She said the organisation had received requests for clubs to be set up at three more schools in 2015.
"The breakfast club initiative started at Dudley Park Primary School in 2002, after reports some children were taking food from other students," Mrs Rodgers said.
"Sometimes children may not have eaten the night before either."
Mrs Rodgers said volunteers, who serve cereal, toast, fruit and eggs one day a week from 7.15am, found more and more parents or caregivers were unable to make money stretch.
She said hunger was not always the result of poverty, but perhaps a lack of supervision in mornings if both parents had left for work - and a growing tendency for young girls to skip meals over concerns about weight gain.
"Healthy breakfast clubs are open to all students who are hungry in the mornings," Mrs Rodgers said.
"We've found that young girls will skip meals but are more likely to eat if they attend the clubs with friends."
Breakfasts are funded by staff of City of Mandurah and Peel Foodbank.
