The school’s attempt to make sure its students start the day with full tummies had been struggling to meet the need until Monday.

On Monday morning Brian Hanley from Manildra presented the school with $5000 for its breakfast club.

According to the club’s co-ordinator Bronwyn Payne, the money will secure the venture’s future.

“With this money we can purchase equipment and keep the breakfast club running five days a week.

“Our breakfast club is not on a needs basis, it’s open to all students,” she said.

“Some of our students eat breakfast very early, for them it can be four hours before their next meal. Then there are students who don’t get any breakfast at home as well as those who are just still hungry.”

She said a good breakfast made a big difference to the attention span of students in class.

“They are more engaged from the start of the day.

“The children love the breakfast club. Older students help out. We also teach social etiquette while the children are eating,” she said. 

Mr Hanley said Manildra received a letter from the school explaining it had established a breakfast club and was hoping to keep it going, but required donations.

“We agreed to help. The Manildra Group does a lot of this sort of thing but people don’t hear about it.

“We thought if the school has the people willing to volunteer for this we would be happy to donate money to help them buy the equipment they need,” he said.