ONCE a month, the Portland Soccer Club rooms turn into a sandwich making factory, producing hundreds of lunches to be distributed among the district’s schools for students who go without.

It’s a good thing being done by a number in the community - volunteers from the Rotary Club of Portland who run the program have this year been joined by project ready students from Portland Secondary College and Portland re-engagement program on the production line.

Ingredients are partially donated by Woolworths, and the rest covered by rotary and community grants from Rotary and the Port of Portland, along with community fundraisers including a recent free dress day at Portland Primary School.

“The idea of the program is that for whatever reason, if kids come to school without their lunch, the schools have the sandwiches in their freezer, so they have at least got something,” said Rotary Club of Portland president Peter Taylor.

The program has incredible ‘bang for its buck’, sending out around 350 sandwiches each month to 13 schools, using about $180 worth of bread, ham cheese and vegemite packaging.

The schools each request the number they would like to receive, something they have noticed is on the rise in recent years.

“There’s more kids coming to school without lunches, and we know that if you haven’t got a belly full of food, you don’t learn,” Mr Taylor said.

Deliveries to schools outside of Portland are made by the Bupa aged care bus on an excursion with residents.

“That’s another wonderful part of the program,” Mr Taylor said.

“They bring their little mini bus down with maybe eight or 10 of their residents on board and they deliver sandwiches to Bolwarra, Dartmoor and Heywood.

“They take the residents out for a drive to do it, and the kids all line up on the fence to wave at them, so that brings them a lot of joy as well.”

Around 80 sandwiches are split between Heywood Consolidated School and Heywood and District Secondary College, said chaplain of both schools Tania Cattell.

“It’s an amazing service, and it’s very well utilised,” she said.

“There doesn’t need to be a big fuss about it either, at the primary school it’s just a quiet word to a teacher, and everybody at the high school knows we’ve got sandwiches in the freezer should they need one.

“Unfortunately, kids do come to school with no lunch because there’s nothing at home for them to make a sandwich with, so for us to not worry that they’re not having anything to eat because we know there’s lunch here for them if they need it, it’s reassuring and comforting.

“Without this, I am sure we would make do, but to have them come already all bagged up, labelled and ready to go straight into the freezer, it just makes it so easy and I can actually get on with supporting the kids otherwise.

“So, I really can’t thank Rotary enough, it really does mean a lot to have this to rely on.”

Mr Taylor said it is an enjoyable afternoon making the sandwiches, with the invitation open for people who would like to help out.

“When the re-engagement students first started they were a bit shy, a bit timid, and it’s been wonderful to see how they’re developed over that time,” he said.

“It’s become a social event, it’s a lot of chitter chatter and when the kids are here, it’s fantastic,” he said.

After this week, the program goes on a break until school returns in January, and Mr Taylor encouraged anyone interested in getting involved to reach out to the Rotary Club of Portland in the meantime.