Rotorua tertiary students connected by free breakfasts

Support services will soon be at the breakfasts too. Photo / Supplied

The promise of a free breakfast every Tuesday is drawing in hundreds of Toi Ohomai students, but it's about more than food, say organisers.

Toi Ohomai engagement facilitator Brian Sinisa said it was a chance to engage with students.

"The whole purpose is around engaging students with staff and this whole breakfast idea is not just about feeding them. It's connecting them with other services internally and externally," he said.

"It's students getting to know other students from different areas and departments because they are quite separate, and also getting students to meet support services."

The university has run two free breakfasts so far and next week Sinisa planned to introduce information on services - everything from budgetting to health services.

More than 200 students have turned up to the free breakfasts held so far. Photo / Supplied

Sinisa said he would assess the need to see who to invite.

More than 200 students turned up to the free breakfasts both weeks.

"It's a nice environment and having this breakfast is bringing people together."

Pastoral care adviser Claudia Schulze said the free breakfasts provided a place for students to engage with staff and each other.

"When they come to see us we engage and see how everything is going with them," Schulze said.

"It's a chance for students to get to know the support services and to have breakfast but also to meet other students to mingle and just really get a good start to the day so they can go to class with full tummies and be engaged."