More families rely on school to help feed their children
A record number of Canterbury schools are now supported by KidsCan to ensure children receive a hot meal, as the cost of living pushes more families into poverty.
The charity helps feed 2907 children each day from 58 schools across the region, up from 2064 in term 4 last year. In Christchurch, 43 schools are supported by the charity to provide food for 2563 children, an increase of more than 600 on last year.
Among them is Te Kura o Matarangi/Northcote School which has seen the number of children attend its daily breakfast club rise from around 35 to between 50 and 60 each day – a third of all students.
‘‘School doesn’t start until 9am, but we will have children arrive from about 7.20am,’’ said principal Justin Perriam, who is part of a small team of volunteers who run the daily service.
He said the breakfast club has become increasingly important to families as the cost of living spiralled.
‘‘We used to go through three loaves of bread, now we’re doing five loaves a day,’’ he said.
‘‘There will be families at all schools who are struggling now
with the costs of living, it’s becoming a far bigger problem than just a low-decile school problem.’’
Northcote is a year 0-6 school in Redwood and has a roll of around 160. The breakfast club is open to all children, regardless of their situation at home, and was started four years ago to address the problem of pupils not attending school because their parents didn’t have any food to give them for lunch.
The food is supplied by KidsCan, Kickstart and community donations
Mother-of-two Chelsea Jackson sends her twins Ria and Shane Tuhou to the school’s breakfast club and now volunteers there.
‘‘These guys come into breakfast club whenever we don’t have enough time for breakfast at home,’’ she said. ‘‘We’re in emergency housing, so the school is a really great support for us.’’
At Linwood’s New Beginnings Preschool, all the children receive a free hot lunch. It is one of 16 Early Childhood Education Services (ECEs) in Christchurch supported by KidsCan and centre manager Mandy Packer said the children are ‘‘not hangry’’ (hungry-angry) as often.
Julie Chapman, chief executive of KidsCan, said Covid-19 and ‘‘the soaring cost of living’’ is ‘‘now being felt in the classroom’’.
‘‘We are feeding nearly 900 more children a day at schools in Canterbury this term than we were a year ago,’’ she said.
KidsCan now supports 877 schools nationwide, helping to feed more than 49,000 students a day.