Provide the essentials to Kiwi kids in need

"A quarter of a sandwich for-tea" - Teachers share harrowing stories as students return to school hungry.

I’m reading through pages and pages of heartbreak. Hundreds of stories from teachers at KidsCan’s partner schools, speaking up about what children in hardship are coping with. It shines a light on the opportunities students are being robbed of as more work to support their families. An insight into a world that children just shouldn’t be living in.

Our schools survey is not easy reading - but it's the confronting truth about how thousands of New Zealand children are living.

This is not easy reading - but if you can, don’t look away. The least we can do is know what is happening.

“There are too many heartbreaking stories to tell from our kura, unfortunately,” a teacher has written. “I had one child tell me that they get a 1/4 of a sandwich for tea and look forward to coming to school so they can eat. They said they hate the holidays as that means there is no food.”

“Student in Year 13 now has a scholarship to Uni but will not be going as the household needs her to go to work. She says it is just for the year, but we all know, including her, that this won't be the case. Too many stories and not enough space for the heartache that we see every day, and our students live,” another said.

We asked our schools what children would arrive without in 2024. “There are often students that do not bring anything to school, not even their school bag,” was a typical reply.

We asked if poverty was getting better or worse in their communities. 65% said it was getting worse, and a further 15% said it hadn’t moved. Kids are feeling it.

“Only having instant noodles to eat. No electricity in the home. Having to wear mum’s hand me down bras that don’t fit. No shampoo, soap, toothpaste etc. I could go on!”

“We know for many of our families the only kai the children get is at school. Children have been ‘caught’ trying to take kai home to share with other siblings and parents. Many families have had their power cut off; they can't afford to buy phone credit. Many mornings I run around the town like a "taxi" picking up children to get them to kura.” That’s from the principal.

We asked how the cost of living crisis is affecting students' education - and this is the part that really got our team - because you can see too many kids’ potential being wiped out by the cost of living.

47 schools spoke of students holding down jobs along with schoolwork or leaving school altogether to work. Students are missing school as they’re looking after their siblings while their parents work extra jobs. Their education is being sacrificed - and that matters because it’s their pathway out of poverty.

“Being too tired and falling asleep at school as they have worked all night and then come straight to school.”

“There are a couple of students working as farm hands to help with household income even though they're primary school children.”

Primary school children. Schools reported students bearing a load they shouldn’t have to shoulder, as their parents did their best to survive.

“One example is a boy who was always coming in late, saying he slept in. After a while I rang mum. She confessed that she started work really early and he had to get himself and younger siblings up and ready for school (couldn't afford a pre-school programme).

“We have one family with three children attending. Mum is leaving home at 6 in the morning and not returning until after 8pm. She is holding down two jobs to make ends meet and the older siblings are doing their best to get everyone to school and cook meals.”

Of course, school isn’t just about academics. It’s trips, and camps, and after school sports and activities. Increasingly, that side of school life is closed to kids in poverty.

“A student in my class is great at sport but will never get the opportunity to succeed in it because her solo mother can't afford petrol and sport fees or the time to get to the events.”

“Participation in sports that have a cost has dropped, especially for students with natural talent from low-income families. These students are well aware of the struggles their families face and are making decisions to not even ask for fees.”

If there is anything uplifting in this reading, it’s the length that schools are going to to plug the gaps: picking up children when there is no petrol, fundraising for sports fees, arranging food parcels.

“Any doctors or specialist appointments that children haven't been able to attend over the break, the school will organise to pick up parents and take the children to these appointments,” one said.

This is a lot to be asking of our schools - whose primary role is to teach. It’s no wonder teachers are burning out. That’s where charities like ours come in. I’m heartened by how much we can help. In this survey, we also asked schools about the difference that KidsCan support makes, with many responses like this:

“The impact of being able to provide our tamariki with food when they have little to nothing has been tremendous. Our children feel cared for and know that school will provide when they are low at home. Providing food, clothes, shoes and health products for our tamariki means they are not limited and absent from school due to these issues.”

We have thousands of children in 77 schools and 137 early childhood centres waiting for this crucial support - our biggest waitlist since 2018. But we can't just rely on kind Kiwis and businesses to feed and clothe vulnerable kids. The government must also play its part, so we can do even more together. Just 1.7% of our funding has come from government over the past 6 years and we urgently need more so we can reach the children who are waiting.

I want to end with a comment from one teacher which has stuck with me: “I think you see [poverty] so often it has become the norm, and nothing shocks anymore.”

But we must be shocked. We can’t become numb to how kids in poverty are living, we must imagine the faces of the children behind these stories and try to put ourselves in the shoes of the parents battling to survive every day. Like every parent, they want the best for their kids - but man, they’re up against it. So, let’s do our part in lifting them up.

Thank you to all our donors who make our support possible - in the toughest of times you are making a real difference.

Shirley has been principal of Auckland's Finlayson Park Primary School for as long as KidsCan has existed. To mark KidsCan's 18th birthday, she reflects on what the support has meant for her students. 

"Over 18 years, KidsCan has been a really pivotal part of our whole school. We were one of the first schools on the programme, and it was like a godsend to have someone come in to offer support, because we were spending a lot of school money on food, but also teachers were donating their own money.  

KidsCan meant we were able to start a Breakfast Club, so kids could eat in the morning - because we were waiting until lunchtime to feed our children. How good is it to be able to come to school, have a nice breakfast and then go off to learn? Just great.  

The intensity of the need has changed in the last couple of years.. A lot of our families are more needy than ever. They're trying their darndest, but all their income covers is rent, power, and the food on the table, but not much and not quality. 

So we've got more children than ever that come to our Breakfast Club. I think it has been a real eye-opener for us as staff actually, because it's children that perhaps don't present as being openly needy. But they certainly are needy, when you look at how they're eating and what they're eating in the mornings, and you ask a few questions about ‘What else did you have at home?’ And it’s usually nothing.  

But the thing that’s also changed is that families are openly talking about it. Before they were too whakama [ashamed]. Now they're so desperate they’re actually reaching out to the school.  That's been good, we've been able to provide them with warm clothes, or shoes, or  head lice treatment or whatever they've come to us for. The continuing advertising we do with our families about the support we get from KidsCan really gives them the okay to say what they need.  

There have been so many things over the years that KidsCan have added on to their support that really it overwhelms us. Shoes and raincoats and head lice treatment, even down to tissues and things like that. We're getting really good quality resources that we could never provide ourselves.  

So while KidsCan’s 18th birthday isn’t something to celebrate, it is a celebratory milestone for the support that's given to our families. We're just so indebted to KidsCan, and we just really think that our families are lucky. We would be so much worse off if we didn't have the ability to just email off and say, ‘We need 10 pairs of shoes in size so,’ or ‘We need X amount of Marmite.’ And then in a couple of days we’ve got that support. It's huge for us. 

So that’s something to celebrate, that an organization can actually support so many students. That our families are getting such great support when they need it."