‘Joining the dots’ between food insecurity and student learning and wellbeing.

Submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Food Security

Food insecurity affects around 16 – 22 per cent of Australian children and 25 – 40 per cent of university students. Poverty is the primary driver of food insecurity, with more than 215,000 Victorian children (17.6 per cent) living in poverty. The current cost of living crisis is exacerbating this issue, affecting previously food-secure families.

The impacts of food insecurity are far-reaching. This submission shines a light on the interconnected nature of food insecurity, poverty, and educational outcomes. It identifies solutions that – if adopted – would ensure that all children and young people have the nutritional foundation needed to thrive in Victoria, ‘The Education State’.
We have focused on these intersections because:

  • VCOSS recognises the powerful role of education in reducing socio-economic and health inequalities in Victoria.
  • VCOSS members tell us that food insecurity is having a profoundly damaging impact on Victorian children and young people’s wellbeing and learning outcomes. Children and young people are not meeting nutritional guidelines, leading to classroom behavioural issues, poor focus, and declining mental health. These factors have flow-on effects for attendance, engagement, attainment and post-school pathways.
  • Researchers have identified hunger and poor nutrition as some of the contributing factors in Australia’s declining academic performance and health outcomes.
  • Victoria’s Education State agenda has an explicit objective to break the link between disadvantage and educational attainment.
  • In making this submission, VCOSS acknowledges that the Victorian Government has strongly invested in a raft of health and wellbeing initiatives in kindergartens and schools, as well as providing cost-of-living relief for families through the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund, State Schools Relief and, more recently, the School Saving Bonus. It has also instituted policies and provided resources specifically aimed at improving student nutrition and wellbeing.

However, continuing high rates of food insecurity and poor health among children and adolescents show that additional measures are needed.

Building on positive government investments like School Breakfast Clubs, VCOSS sees further opportunities to harness education settings to tackle the socio-economic dimensions of food insecurity, as part of a multi-faceted approach to this issue.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Given that poverty is the primary driver of food insecurity, the Victorian Government should advocate to the Commonwealth Government to:

1.1 Raise the rate of Jobseeker and other Commonwealth income support payments to at least $80 a day, to shield people of working age and their families from poverty when they cannot obtain enough paid work.
1.2 Introduce and improve supplements to cover essential costs above and beyond basic income support, including the extra costs of sole parenthood and disability.
1.3 Progress recommendations from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Supermarkets Inquiry 2024-25 that anti-poverty groups, consumer advocates and food security experts advise can reduce food stress and improve food security. (VCOSS notes the ACCC’s Final Report is due to be handed to the Commonwealth Government no later than 28 February 2025).


Recommendation 2: Victorian policy makers have long recognised that kindergartens and schools are key settings for the prevention and amelioration of socio-economic and health inequalities – including food insecurity. The Victorian Government – through the Department of Education, the system steward for the state’s education system – should:

2.1 Recognise food insecurity as an issue that impacts Victoria’s capacity to achieve the Education State goal to break the link between disadvantage and learning outcomes.

2.2 Sustain investment in existing initiatives that work to reduce the experience and impacts of food insecurity on children and young people – such as the School Breakfast Clubs program. This sustained investment should include funding to support continuous quality improvement, for example, monitoring and evaluation activity.

2.3 Mobilise evidence and expertise – including lived and living experience – to design, fund, and implement additional food security measures that ensure children and young people are ‘clear for learning’. In the first instance, VCOSS advocates for the existing school breakfasts initiative to be extended to become a meals program that includes universal access to free nutritious school lunches and snacks.

2.4 Ensure that initiatives to address classroom behaviour (for example, the Department’s School-wide Positive Behaviour Support framework) take the impacts of food insecurity into account.


Recommendation 3: To support the Department of Education to design and implement evidence-informed initiatives, the Victorian Government should:

3.1 Invest in systems that accurately measure and screen for food insecurity, including a publicly available state-wide food stress index.


Recommendation 4: The Department of Education’s Framework for Improving Student Outcomes Policy (FISO 2.0) recognises the community sector as an important partner to schools, helping to support student wellbeing and learning. However, these community services – including food relief agencies – are struggling to meet demand and face funding challenges. The Victorian Government should:

4.1 Provide community sector services – including those that deliver food relief – with long-term funding that reflects the true cost of delivering services and is responsive to demand pressures.


Recommendation 5: Food insecurity is a multi-faceted issue. The impact of food security initiatives delivered in the education system and in the community sector would be enhanced if they were part of a broader cross-sectoral strategy for the state. The Victorian Government should:

5.1 Develop and implement of a whole-of-government Victorian Food Security Strategy.
5.2 Re-establish the Victorian Food Relief Taskforce and expand its membership to include key experts from education.

VCOSS is the peak body for Victoria’s social and community sector, and the state’s premier social advocacy body. We work towards a Victoria free from poverty and disadvantage, where every person and community experiences genuine wellbeing. Read more.

We welcome the opportunity to provide this input.

This work is authorised by VCOSS CEO Juanita Pope.

PRIMARY AUTHOR

Jo Hatcher

VCOSS acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country, and we pay respect to Elders and Ancestors. Our business is conducted on sovereign, unceded Aboriginal land. The VCOSS offices are located on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung land in central Naarm.