Kids facing ‘cost-of-learning crisis’

Left: e KidsCan team packing up food to deliver to schools.

Above: KidsCan CEO Julie Chapman.

e cost-of-living crisis is hurting our backyard more than ever before, with one Tauranga-based school and three Western Bay of Plenty schools among many in Aotearoa which have put themselves on the waiting list for help from KidsCan this winter.

According to KidsCan, the Tauranga school is one of 28 which have applied for help from KidsCan this year alone. e three WBOP schools are among 54 schools nationwide on the KidsCan waiting list.

KidsCan CEO Julie Chapman says the demand for helping these children is sky-rocketing, with pay stretching and increasing prices making it evident that these kids need support now more than ever.

“With families’ budgets more stretched than ever, they are rationing food, hot water, power and petrol.

“We’re helping to feed and clothe more children than ever before, but we can’t keep up with demand, and that’s devastating.

“A child can’t learn if they’re cold or hungry – their brains are just in survival mode. So, this cost-ofliving crisis has become a cost-of-learning crisis.

“From primary school children staying home due to petrol costs, to secondary students working huge hours to support their families, we should all be hugely worried about this.

“It’s denying children the chance of a better future through education.”

KidsCan also o ers support to pre-schoolers through their early childhood programme, which has a wait list of 97 centres, including four in the Western Bay of Plenty.

KidsCan’s aim is to help children get to school warm, dry and ready to learn by providing them with food, jackets, shoes and health products.

Julie says that schools say in some instances what KidsCan provides can be the di erence between students making it to school or not. “Sadly, these essentials are becoming luxuries for many families as the cost-of-living rises.

“Teachers are telling us of parents in tears when their kids receive clothing they just couldn't a ord.

“It takes a bit of pressure o them, and it means kids can focus in class rather than feeling hungry.”

With the charity itself under huge pressure from rising costs, and donations dropping, KidsCan has launched an urgent appeal to nd more to support undertake its work.

“It’s tough out there, and some of our donors can’t a ord to keep supporting us. We really need people who aren’t struggling to help us – we desperately want to reach those children waiting for help.”

To donate, visit: www.kidscan.org.nz

Donations are the gears that fuel KidsCan, and CEO Julie Chapman touches on the need for donors so the charity can continue to widen their outreach and shorten their waitlists to hopefully help students in need, here in our own backyard.

Ella McConnell