Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to share some of the wonderful news from Beenleigh State School's successful Great Futures program and their popular Breakfast Club. On Friday morning I attended the school's Great Futures Big Breakfast, to celebrate it serving over 100,000 breakfasts to students—a fantastic milestone—over the past five years.

The initiative of Beenleigh State School's Breakfast Club program is to provide nutritious food for healthy bodies and healthy minds. Through no fault of their own, many of the students are caught up in the cycle of poverty and are often sent to school without breakfast. This program alleviates the burden on struggling parents. It unites students, parents, teachers, local businesses and community leaders in a common cause to help our less fortunate families. Volunteers serve breakfasts for up to 200 students from eight o'clock in the morning to about a quarter to nine, and it follows a hands-up not a hand-out philosophy, with many students also volunteering in the Breakfast Club.

The teachers have found tremendous changes since the program was introduced, with students more focused and more settled at the start of the day and fewer complaints about hunger. Starving students will focus more on their hunger than on the task at hand.

I congratulate Beenleigh State School and the parents, volunteers, teachers and sponsors who have made the Breakfast Club program such a success in changing the lives of Beenleigh's less fortunate students.