New Zealand’s children charity, KidsCan, is experiencing a significant increase in demand for food, with orders up 15% compared to the same period last year, as the organisation enters what CEO and Founder Julie Chapman describes as the toughest time of year for families in poverty.
In 1981, Mini fever hit New Zealand with the release of the classic comedy film Goodbye Pork Pie, featuring two blokes in a stolen Mini making a cross-country dash to evade the chasing cops. In 2025, the film has become the inspiration for an epic KidsCan fundraiser — the Pork Pie Charity Run. This year, 50 teams of Mini lovers loosely followed the Blondini Gang’s route from Paihia to Invercargill over six adventure-filled days. The result? An incredible $469,137 raised.
By Leisha Byrnes, Lincoln Heights School Principal. We're always worried about our students during the holidays, but we’re pretty connected with our community, so our high-risk families have our staff’s phone numbers – including mine. They’ll ring us over the holidays, and we'll organise food parcels. We actually leave the school unlocked as well, so our parents and our kids see school as a safe place. They will come up here and use the playground, use the bike track.
Step inside New Beginnings Preschool in Linwood, Christchurch, and you’ll be embraced. Little Gian will take you on a hunt for red paint so he can swirl his fingers in it. Joshy will show you his choice of nail colour as a teacher paints his nails. Fala and Ruby will show you their favourite hiding place, where they can both squeeze into a barrel.
More than 6,000 families in KidsCan’s partner early childhood centres have received holiday food packs to ease the burden of food insecurity this Christmas. The new initiative was made possible with the support of Graeme and Robyn Hart and delivered by Bidfood. Our team visited Te Papapa Preschool in Auckland to help pack.
We’re thrilled to share we have been awarded Government funding to provide food for up to 10,000 more preschoolers. It comes after Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced in May that the Government’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunch programme would continue, and a new programme would be introduced for 2-5-year-olds. KidsCan was selected because we already feed nearly 6500 preschoolers daily in more than 200 early childhood centres in low-income communities nationwide.
Ruby Tui has won the hearts of New Zealanders – not only through her rugby, but because she uses her voice to champion children’s wellbeing. We’re proud to welcome her as a KidsCan ambassador.
Nestled on the fringes of Napier, you'll find a club like no other - the Taradale Afternoon Tea Club. Founder Ruth Pearson-Vell wanted to support Kiwi kids - but didn't have much spare in her budget. So she rallied her community - from her 'gang' of older ladies to young immigrants. Each week they bring a gold coin and swap life stories over a cuppa.
Children with shoes held together with duct tape, shivering in only t-shirts in winter, and with less and less food in their lunch boxes. Teachers say these are increasingly common scenes at school as more families struggle to survive – and students’ learning is suffering.
