Summer holidays A time of need for many
Agencies fear cost of living pain for families doing it tough
Increasing food and transport costs are expected to hit families hard this summer when the free school lunch programme closes down for the holidays. Salvation Army Rotorua officer Hana Seddon said its foodbank saw more families in need during the school holidays.
“One of the reasons for this is that during the school holidays the [Healthy School Lunches Programme] isn’t there . . . [and] some family members can’t work because they need to be at home looking after the kids.”
The Rotorua Daily Post is in the second week of its six-week annual Christmas Appeal, raising donations of money and food to support the foodbank though the holidays and beyond.
Aorangi School principal Kairo Mclean said times were tough, not only for families receiving support or benefits but for working families scraping through paycheck to paycheck.
“We are lucky enough to be part of the lunches in schools programme, which is definitely a huge help for our families not having to worry about making lunches during term time.
“If that was gone or ceased, in my view as principal, I would make it an urgent priority as a school to find the money or use money from other avenues to ensure that food is provided in schools.
“This is vital to supporting students attendance, engagement and reducing incidents in schools due to hungry students not being school-ready due to the lack of, or no food at all”.
He said another problem for some families was the price of healthy food, such as fruit and vegetables.
“It can be cheaper to get the unhealthy or fried food options because it feeds everyone for a reasonable price.”
He said not having access to nutritious food had many effects on tamariki, such as trouble concentrating in class, weight issues, and struggling to fight off illnesses, which then perpetuated already low attendance rates in New Zealand schools.
“I just hope, whatever happens with Government next year, that they can see the value of keeping lunches in schools — for the sake of our tamariki.”
Mclean said with high petrol prices they had also noticed some children being kept at home because there was no gas in the tank to get them to school.
“With the Christmas and extended summer holidays, a lot of families will need support from the foodbank and Salvation Army.
“That’s why Fill the Bus [part of the Christmas Appeal] is such a great initiative and we will be taking part
in that this year with our Aorangi and Western Heights community.”
Kaingaroa Forest School principal Marylouise Macpherson-hall said some families in the school community were under “increasing financial strain”, with fuel costs hitting especially hard due to the community’s remoteness.
Some people were seeking increased hours at work or taking on additional work to continue to provide for their wha¯nau.
“At times the strain is picked up on by our students and they demonstrate negative behaviours due to the stress and strains on the wha¯nau.”
Macpherson-hall said the school’s lunch programme was self-catered with meals cooked on site.
“Those within our school community/whanau are thankful for the programme and our tamariki enjoy the kai they have.
“It helps our akonga (students) to explore new foods, textures and flavours.
“A huge benefit is that they can be settled and self-managing, ready with mana for learning.”
Macpherson-hall said during the school holidays community members donated kai for the after school
and holiday programme.
Mamaku School principal Gary Veysi said some members of the school community were having to decide between paying for food or paying the rent as living costs piled up.
“Rural
is awesome, our rents are
cheaper but if you work in town the price of petrol is impacting you hugely.
“We’ve also got people who don’t even have a car. If you didn’t have a car you couldn’t drive into town to do groceries and deliveries cost extra.”
Veysi said the school lunch programme helped provide jobs and food for everyone, free from discrimination.
“When we have leftovers we can pass those on to any family who needs it.”
Veysi is also the Rotorua
Principals’ Association president and said more kids were coming to school disengaged and he worried about how children would fare over the holidays without school lunches.
“Christmas we know is going to be the most stressful time of year for some families.”
Veysi took his hat off to Rotorua’s principals “going above and beyond” to support their students.
“When our students are at our school, we know when they’re not feeling good. We can talk. We can offer to help.”
Veysi said, over the summer, he tried to connect people with the support they may need even if it was difficult to reach out for help.
“People want to help people. It’s human nature.”
He said it was important to keep increasing the mentality of giving back to the community.