The club aims to provide nutritious food and resources to give students a better start to their day. 

School principal Cindi Bruechert said Kickstart would also provide students with a sense of stability. 

“We started a kitchen garden program and we were contemplating the idea of a breakfast club but then we got a call from the bank about the Kickstart Breakfast Club,” she said. 

Kickstart Breakfast Club co-ordinator John Haig said three schools in the region – Heathcote Primary School, Holy Rosary Primary School and Tooborac Primary School – would offer the breakfast club.  

He said promoting healthy eating and encouraging students to eat breakfast was important. 

“What you tend to find is those who haven’t had breakfast have low concentration, and there may be behaviour issues,” Mr Haig said. “When they have had breakfast in the morning, teachers say students are studying better and their behaviour has improved.

“For some kids they may not spend a lot of time with their relatives, like grandparents or cousins, and so they come to breakfast club. It is their sense of community. 

“The idea of sharing a meal is also important; a lot of families don’t have meals together very often, so the breakfast club also teaches students about sharing.”

The breakfast club has been funded by the Heathcote and District Community Bank, a sub-branch of the Bendigo Bank. 

The branch committed $15,000 from branch revenue, which will go toward the running of the program.