1 in 5 Australian children are going hungry, reports Foodbank

Foodbank Australia have released the first ever research report on child hunger in Australia, entitled “Rumbling Tummies”. This major call to action, is hoping to lift the lid on the largely unknown fact that an Australian child is more likely to go hungry than adult.

Foodbank reports, “more than 1 in 5 children have experience food insecurity in the last 12 months, and the situation is getting worse by the day”.

Foodbank Australia’s CEO, Brianna Casey, said, “It is both heartbreaking and unacceptable to hear that children are going hungry anywhere in the world, let alone in Australia”.

Top findings from the report

Sadly 1 in 3 parents living in food secure homes say their children go hungry at least once a month.
At least once a week, 18% of children from food insecure homes go to school without eating breakfast, 15% go to Schoo without a packed lunch or lunch money and 11% go to bed without eating dinner.
This is in spite of parents doing a lot to protect their children with 36% skipping meals so their children can eat and 29% going a whole day without eating at all.
Shockingly more than half (56%) of these parents have not paid bills in order to have enough money for food.

In this Foodbank infographic, they put into light more terrible findings from their research.