Community Warriors deliver KidsCan raincoats for Bishopdale School

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. We have staff on site for our summer reading programme, so our library is open, they can come and take books out and catch up with teachers. If kids are hungry, we’ll make them food.

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.

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.