The Liberals and Nationals’ Healthy Lunches program is excellent for childrens’ education and health, as well as being a boost for small business.
Under our program, every public school student will be provided with a free, healthy lunch, helping to improve educational outcomes and good nutrition in schools, plus helping families with the spiralling cost of living.
Healthy Lunches will also be of benefit to small businesses who will have the opportunity to be engaged to prepare the lunches for their local schools.
Healthy Lunches has been widely welcomed:
- The Victorian Council of Social Services CEO Emma King told Nine: “I think that when it comes to making sure that kids are fed, they’re ready to learn, that’s a policy that everyone can get behind”.
- The Australian Principals Federation President Tina King told the Herald Sun she was supportive of “initiatives that promote health and wellbeing”.
- Founder of Eat Up Lyndon Galea, whose charity provides lunches to school kids told The Age she was “really heartened” by the policy.
In contrast, multiple media reports confirmed that Daniel Andrews does not support the policy, and will not provide free, healthy, and nutritious lunches to Victorian students.
Only a Matt Guy Liberals and Nationals Government will reward hard-working Victorian families by taking the stress and cost away from parents by providing nutritious food to their school kids.
Healthy Lunches is another part of our Long-Term Economic Plan, and is only possible because we will rein in Daniel Andrews’ spiralling debt and cut waste, such as the $4.7 billion West Gate Tunnel blow-out.
Under the Liberals and Nationals’ Long-Term Economic Plan, a Victorian family would save nearly $6,000 a year from both our healthy lunch program and our $2 flat fare for public transport.
The Healthy Lunches program will commence as a two-year $300 million pilot, with rollout initially targeted into selected state primary schools in the second half of 2023. It is anticipated that the program could be available to all state schools by 2026.