It’s said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day – and Teach For Australia (TFA) teacher Christopher Buck is making sure every student at Hedland Senior High School has theirs.
Chris started teaching Biology, Human Biology and Science through TFA’s Leadership Development Program in 2023 and noticed that many students would arrive at their first class complaining of being hungry.
Chris presented his idea for a breakfast club at a “pitch night” hosted by TFA and was successful in receiving funds to get it up and running. With the support of his school, breakfast club was introduced at Hedland Senior High School in Term 4 last year.
“The response from the students has been overwhelmingly positive,” Chris said.
“Many students have come up to me during the week sharing comments like ‘I loved my toastie this morning’, ‘I’m really looking forward to breakfast club tomorrow’ and ‘Good thing this is here, I haven’t had breakfast yet’.
“The response from the staff has also been great, with the number of volunteers slowly increasing, with new faces most weeks.”
Grant grows impact
The breakfast club has quickly grown from a simple offering of fruit cups, Weetbix and orange juice to include toast, baked beans and spaghetti toasties this year – and the menu is about to grow further thanks to a recent $10,000 grant from De Grey Mining (De Grey).
The grant, alongside the continued support of FoodBank, will allow the breakfast club to offer a greater variety of food by purchasing a freezer to store pre-prepared meals and more appliances to prepare hot food in the mornings.
“Together, all these benefits will allow us to fill more student bellies, which is the ultimate goal of breakfast club,” Chris said.
De Grey Community and Social Performance Manager, Shane Boladeras, said: “We are very pleased to support the breakfast club. I really enjoyed volunteering at the breakfast club, providing the energy to learn and thrive while getting the opportunity to talk to the students, teachers and staff.”
“Our commitment to the breakfast club is just one of the many partnerships we have established in Port Hedland, designed to make a positive impact on the communities where we operate,” Shane said.
‘A perfect fit’
Chris joined TFA’s employment-based pathway last year because he wanted to have an impact on students’ education and lives through teaching in the classroom.
Before joining the program, Chris gained a bachelor’s degree in Sports Science, Exercise and Health from the University of Western Australia and completed a PhD looking at the effects of nutritional supplements on female athletes’ sporting performance.
He then continued to work at UWA as a member of the student equity team, which engaged with students from low socio-economic schools in WA about university and education after secondary school.
“Whilst I loved this job, after six years I began feeling I could have a bigger impact on students’ education and lives by being in the classroom as a teacher, which is why I applied for the Teach For Australia program,” he said.
“The program has been a perfect fit for me. It is the right level of challenge that I was looking for in life and has allowed me to follow my aspirations of having a positive impact in the lives of young people.”