Never too early for food for thoughts
Feeding children in early childhood a smart investment
Hundreds of Northland children are starting school on the back foot after suffering hunger and lack of essentials during their crucial preschool years.
Early childcare educators (ECE) are calling for help as children turn up hungry and in ill-fitting clothing, with a leading neuroscience educator confirming that feeding preschoolers is a smart investment toward their overall outcome in life.
Neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis said New Zealand needs to focus much more on the early childhood sector.
“It’s deeply embedded in our culture that your outcomes are a lot about what high school you went to. But the science of the last 20 years shows us that the exact opposite is true. We can statistically predict a lot of your outcomes as an adult from the age of 3.
“Good nutrition is crucial because a child’s brain is just not going to develop without it. Being hungry denies them the ability to grow their frontal cortex, to be able to access their ability to regulate emotions and prevent anxiety and depression. Feeding kids in early childhood is actually just a really smart investment. That’s really where you’re going to make a difference in the whole lifespan. I can’t really stress enough how important it is.”
The charity KidsCan has recently included another 48 centres nationwide (with five in Northland) to its under-5s programme. It now supports 110 ECE centres nationwide with 14 in Northland. However, a further 108 centres nationwide — 11 in Northland with 313 preschoolers — still wait for help.
There are four Whanga¯rei-based centres new to the programme and one in Moerewa.
Whanga¯rei Childcare Centre joined the programme in January and manager Carol Cook said at least half the families were struggling at their centre which provides for 50 children. Until they joined the KidsCan programme, the centre had been providing food which came at a charge.
“The centre has always offered kai to tamariki but had to charge for it. People were saying they needed to cut down the number of days their children were coming as they couldn’t afford food.
“The KidsCan support means the food is free. That saves $16 a week for parents which might not sound a lot to some but it’s two bottles of milk and two loaves of bread and for some whanau, that’s what they survive on. So it’s putting more food back into
their cupboards,” she said.
The food was previously funded by both the centre and the families and the money saved by the centre would provide the option to further extend education for the children.
“When you sign up to be an ECE teacher you sign up to be a teacher, a social worker, a nurse and everything. It has been a hard year but that’s life. I wouldn’t do any other job.”
Children were responding well to the new menu which was provided by Countdown and prepared onsite. The Heart Foundation helps develop
KidsCan’s early childhood menu, with recipes designed to increase the amount of vegetables and quality protein that children have in their diet. Their nutrition advisers work with each centre to implement them. Centres have a choice of 20 recipes, and the ingredients are delivered fresh weekly by Countdown.
KidsCan’s early childhood programme started in late 2018 and 4400 children in 110 centres now receive a warm, nutritious lunch, snacks, a jacket, shoes, socks and head lice treatment.
The total number of preschoolers around the country awaiting help is 3600 and KidsCan CEO Julie Chapman said they were doing all they could to keep up with demand but the waiting list keeps growing.
“Our youngest Kiwis are waking up in overcrowded homes, getting dressed in ill-fitting hand-me-downs, and finding there’s not enough food to sustain their little bodies. Early childhood centres are doing all they can to fill the gaps, but it’s becoming too much for them to cope with on their own.
“We started this programme because teachers in early childhood centres were desperate for the same support that school children receive from a range of organisations. Under5s had been overlooked, and we now know this is the most crucial time for their developing minds,” Chapman said.
Last year a University of Waikato report found KidsCan’s programme is making a “valuable difference” to children’s wellbeing.
● People can make a one-off donation or sign up to support a child for $30 a month at: www.kidscan.org.nz