MYRTLEFORD P12 College will offer free breakfasts for students from the start of term 3 next year. The school, along with Whorouly Primary School, has been included in the Victorian Government rollout known as The Breakfast Club. Myrtleford will be among the last of the more than 500 state schools to join the program in the second half of next year. Principal Zlatko Pear said they were still working through the details. The rollout is based on economics and so we are part of the final group of schools to be funded and that is not expected to start until the start of term 3, he said. We already have a breakfast club but that is operating just the once a week and we still get 50 to 60 students. It is partly about a healthy start to the day but there is also a social element to it as well. Most of the food is non-perishable and that is subsidised by the State Government and if we want to beef that up it comes out of our budget. The school has grown from 216 students at the start of 2013 to more than 300 students next year; that is not a demographic issue or a population boom, I think it is recognition of the good things the school has been doing in recent years. Last week Jaclyn Symes (MLC, Northern Victoria) announced the names of schools in Northern Victoria participating in the State Governmentfunded program from term 1, 2016. Ms Symes said under the $13.7 million Breakfast Clubs program, students will be provided with a free breakfast every day. With one in seven children arriving at school with an empty stomach, the provision of free breakfasts will ensure these students no longer go hungry and allow them to get the most out of their education, she said. Under the program, participating schools with existing breakfast clubs will get their free food delivered directly to their door. And for the first time, hundreds of schools will be offering Breakfast Clubs for the very first time. The State Government has partnered with Foodbank the largest welfare food agency in Australia to establish and lead this state-wide program, using their existing warehousing, storage and freight network.