“The Healthy Lunches program will take the stress and cost away from parents in providing nutritious food to their children at school,” Guy said.

Sahlberg said that despite the cost,Victoria “should have done this already some time ago” due to the educational and health benefits of free lunches. He said free nutritional meals needed to be a part of the school curriculum to help teach students healthy habits.

“Why it’s not done yet is something difficult for me to understand. I come from Finland ... where we have had healthy school meals since 1943,” Sahlberg said.

Finland,Sweden,India,the United Kingdom and parts of the United States provide free school lunches.

Tasmania launched a pilot program this year across 15 schools,while theUniversity of Tasmania found an earlier trial involving 201 students in the state was strongly supported by parents. Ninety per cent of parents said they would like schools to provide a cooked lunch every day.

New Zealand has also begun rolling out free school lunches to fulfil Prime Minister Jacinda Arden’s 2020 election promise,but this is not universal and targets the most disadvantaged students only.

Guy said his program would provide cost-of-living relief for Victorian families,who would be able to pick meals approved by a panel of nutrition experts via an app or website. Local businesses and cafes would provide the lunches,he said.

Australia’s latest consumer price index showed annual inflation hasreached its highest level since 1990,at 7.3 per cent,with fruit and vegetable prices rising 16.2 per cent.

Lyndon Galea,founder of Eat Up,a charity delivering free food to lunch-less children in 651 schools across Australia,said he was “really heartened” to see the opposition’s proposal but said providing lunches to all public students by 2026 would require “massive infrastructure”.

Galea suggested targeting the most disadvantaged,rather than providing all state school students with meals.

“That’s a big step forward and a costly investment to make when,perhaps,we could look towards these kids – who are in concerning numbers,but ultimately in the minority – who are arriving without food from home,” he said.

“It’s a conversation that we welcomed and encouraged,but I think there’s a little more work that needs to be done more broadly.”

Sahlberg said Australia was one of the richest countries in the world and added:“We should not use the economics of the state as an excuse not to do this.”

Victorian Council of Social Service CEO Emma King said the organisation supported the Coalition’s plan.

King said the Victorian government’s expanded free breakfast program for 1000 of the most disadvantaged government schools across Victoria – which costs $58 million from 2019 to 2023 –was already a “screaming success” that the Coalition pledge could build on.

Food charity OzHarvest’s CEO,Ronni Kahn,said:“We have never seen so many people needing food relief,so any support that helps feed those in need can only be a good thing.”

A spokesman for the state government said it had provided more than 25 million free breakfast club meals to students in 1000 Victorian schools,in partnership with FoodBank Victoria. Lunches have also been given to students needing additional support.

“You can’t trust Matthew Guy’s Liberals. When they were last in government,they cut Free Fruit Fridays,leaving thousands of Victorian kids hungry,and slashed the Education Maintenance Allowance,leaving families up to $300 worse off per child per year,” the spokesman said.

The South Australian andQueensland Greens have called for free school lunches in their respective states. The Victorian Greens did not respond to a request for comment.

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