Hot meals draw students to school
but Waiopehu College teacher Sarah Ryan said staff noticed students were skipping school because parents did not want them going without food.
That’s when they asked charitable organisation KidsCan for help.
The school had become a safe place for students to go and be fed, and a barrier to their education had been removed, Ryan said.
In the beginning, she said a negative stigma was attached to receiving free items, which made it tricky for those in need to be willing to accept food.
So the school started opening the programmes to everyone.
For some students, it was the only hot meal they received for the day, KidsCan chief executive Julie Chapman said.
The number of students needing food, clothing and basic hygiene products had continued to rise.
Food budgets were usually the first to be affected, evidenced by the 38 schools on waitlists for help, Chapman said.
More than 280,000 servings of ‘‘heat and eat’’ meals had been sent to schools throughout the country in what has been the organisation’s largest-ever delivery of food to children in hardship, she said.
Last year, KidsCan gave out 5.27 million items of food, including 61,700 large tins of baked beans, more than 130,000 loaves of bread and 1.6m packs of scroggin, up 20 per cent from 2017.
Ryan said hot meals had changed students’ behaviour in the classrooms – they were happier and more willing to learn.
Although it was effective, she said the programme would not solve poverty problems.
‘‘But it’s certainly helping us deal with it from a school’s perspective in terms of getting them to school and helping them achieve to best of their ability.’’
It had helped stop teachers dipping into their pockets to help, whether that’s buying something from the canteen or funding clothing items for students to fully participate in school activities.
KidsCan provides food, coats, footwear and health and hygiene items in 740 schools nationwide.