Students make milestone sandwiches

STUDENTS at Ballarat Grammar spent their Tuesday evening last week reaching a milestone against food insecurity.

The year 7 and 8 pupils packed the 50,000th sandwich as part of Alfredton Rotary’s Eat Up program, which provides lunches to disadvantaged schoolchildren.

The initiative is carried out at Ballarat Grammar, and Eat Up coordinator Deb Robertson, a Rotarian, said it was incredible to reach the milestone.

“It means we’ve done a good job but it obviously means we haven’t finished the job,” she said. “It’s an ongoing need in the community and it’s only getting bigger.

“The idea of Eat Up is to fill a tummy and to get their brain at full potential.

“It’s a simple idea and it works really well. It also doesn’t use school resources like staff having to make the sandwiches or find funds to create them.”

The Eat Up program has been running in Ballarat since 2016.

A former teacher at Ballarat Grammar, Ms Robertson reached out to staff to help facilitate the initiative, and students have been key volunteers in the effort since.

The program supports 35 primary schools in the region.

Ms Robertson said there are plans to expand its outreach next year.

“Back in 2017 we had a session at one of the primary schools and we’ve had offers from other schools to help but up until now, we haven’t needed it,” she said.

“We may bring this to high schools starting next year. We just need to get the funds.”

Eat Up Australia provides mentoring, bread for the sandwiches is supplied for free from Woolworths, and cheese and margarine costs are discounted by Nature’s Cargo.