Sky-high food prices are being felt in classrooms, and KidsCan is now feeding 10,000 more hungry students compared to the beginning of the year. As children return to school for Term 4, Kidscan said it had fielded calls from principals who were in tears about the hunger and poverty they were seeing among students.
Verity Brogden is a 20-year old ambassador for KidsCan. ''I want to be a voice for kids in poverty. Not enough of us speak out about living through it, so then we're just thought of as statistics. And it's easier to ignore it, and to pretend it's not happening.''
Some kids weren't at school because their parents had no money for petrol. The stress was immense, and there were a lot of mental health issues. Tough, then, to bring your child up with a lust for life.
We started out in 40 low decile schools, providing raincoats and snacks, packed, and sent from my home. Now we have a warehouse literally packed to the rafters with supplies for more than 850 schools nationwide: breakfast food, snacks, hot lunches, jackets, solid shoes, head lice treatment, hand sanitiser, tissues and more.
Vulnerable children are bearing the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis, with teachers in schools and early childhood centres supported by KidsCan reporting increasing concerns for their wellbeing. The charity has seen a spike in applications for help, with more than two thousand children on its waitlist. It has launched an urgent appeal to help feed children as winter hits.
For many Kiwi kids living in poverty, hunger is standing in the way of a better future. Fifteen percent of tamariki – one in six – might not know when they'll eat next.
“It’s clear how much this food means,” says Malan, the Assistant Principal at Haeata Community Campus, a decile 1 school in Christchurch. “We see a real difference in focus when our students are full.”
Last week a teacher at one of our partner schools wiped away tears as she told us what her students are dealing with. Kids coming to breakfast club who haven’t eaten the night before.
Help from charities like KidsCan have taken some of the tough choices away from our kids. We used to have siblings missing school because it “wasn’t their turn” to wear the only pair of shoes.
