Power to the pupils

Leah Warren, Sophia Warren and Cameron Telfer are among the students who have taken action to feed hungry classmates. Photo / John Stone

At Whangarei Primary School, student super heroes are swooping in to help classmates that come to school hungry.

Some of the school's high needs Year 3 and 4 pupils have set up a daily morning stall giving out healthy breakfasts to those that need them.

The pupils behind the scheme, who have named their venture the Super Hero Cafe, are those that already have a lot to cope with, said teacher Linda Foster.

Ms Foster is in charge of the school's Ongoing Resourcing Scheme which provides support for students with special needs to join in and learn alongside other pupils.

She said Cameron Telfer, Sophia Warren, Leah Warren, Jordan Tautari and Khea Vint had spent much of last term thinking about how to help fellow pupils who came to school without breakfast.

"Why are these students super heroes? Because they just took this idea and flew with it," Ms Foster said.

The students came up with the cafe idea after finding out about how nutrition affects a learning brain.

"When children don't have breakfast, they can't learn," Sophia said. "Breakfast makes you healthy and strong,"

A bumper cake sale organised by the Heroes raised $426 - more than enough to get the cafe set up with plenty of breakfast basics.

"The cake sale was a huge success," Ms Foster said. "The children were really excited about helping their peers."