Three School Breakfast Clubs and much more!

Manor Lakes is a suburb in Melbourne, 33km south-west of Melbourne’s Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area with a population of 12,675.

Manor Lakes P-12 College opened in 2009 and is built on a large site, combining Primary and Secondary schools and including a Supported Learning Centre. There are around 3,000 students enrolled at the school, split evenly between Primary and Secondary.

The College is committed to improving learning outcomes and pathways for their students and is committed to the ongoing creation of a community of responsible learners who have a belief in their ability to learn and succeed.

The School Breakfast Clubs Program has become an important part of achieving these commitments, providing students with healthy food to support better learning outcomes and a sense of community with the provision of Home Food Pack Hampers for families in the school community.

Breakfast Clubs catering to different audiences

The sheer size of Manor Lakes College provides the unique challenge of catering to different school sectors with specific requirements. Bec Collins, Community Connections Manager said, “We need to accommodate the different needs of each area of the school. The Primary School Breakfast is served at a window and only offers grab and go items and the Secondary program is in our community centre with a combination of grab and go and other make-yourself and self-serve items. Our supported learning centre breakfast is set in a kitchen where the students have more autonomy to choose foods, preparing the food themselves in the kitchen.”

Manor Lakes wants to ensure that the Breakfast Program is not just providing food to students, but also provides a sense of community within the school. To achieve this the College invited the local Community Police to attend a Primary School Breakfast Club, with the objective to build the relationship with the students and their local police patrol. The kids loved meeting the Police up-close, and in such a positive environment.

Hamper Project run by the kids

The Manor Lakes school community is always top of mind for Bec Collins. When a Supported Learning class was looking for a volunteering project to complete a school assignment, Bec had the solution! The class could not find the right project within the community, so they decided to take control of planning, developing and delivering Home Food Pack Hampers for the school community.

“We gave the kids full control of the Hampers,” said Bec. “They had to plan how to manage the project, order the food, pack the Hampers, develop marketing material to tell the school about the free Hampers and finally deliver the Hampers directly to the families.”

The Hamper project, which the class called Helping Hampers, provided the class with a myriad of learning opportunities, including:

Planning
Creating a name for the project
Mathematical order projections
Marketing collateral copy writing
Marketing collateral design (posters, flyers, Facebook posts)
Group work when packing the Hampers, determining roles
Recipe card development
Quality control
Delivery coordination (location, setup and rostering)
Communication skills directly with families.

The class project was very successful, providing around 250 Hampers to families in need from the school community. The school families loved receiving the free Hampers and are hoping the class will run the project again. The families also loved the recipe cards that the class put into the boxes, giving them ideas on how to use the food provided. Well done Manor Lakes!

Feedback from the school community

Parents:

“It’s a great place for my son to make friends with other children who aren’t in his class.”

“If my daughter is running late in the morning, it’s great to know she can grab breakfast at school.”

“Sometimes things at home are really tight for food, and this takes the pressure off at times.”

Students:

“We love the toast and milk!”

“I love coming and getting breakfast with my friends.”

“I love vegemite toast, it’s my favourite.”

“I don’t have time at home to have breakfast, so it’s good to be able to eat when I get here.”

“I get to school really early and I like to have something to eat.”