No shoes and hungry: The growing reality of middle income schools

Monday, 12 August 2024

Middle income schools are increasingly joining the KidsCan waitlist as the cost of living bites.

Kelly Barker’s role as principal of her Wellington primary school is to provide her students with the best education possible.

But more and more the Gracefield School’s budget was being spent on providing the absolute basics for the growing cohort experiencing financial hardship at home.

Kids came to school with no shoes on, soaking wet because they didn’t have raincoats, dropped off in cars with no car seats and hungry, Barker said.

When she first joined the school in 2020, it regularly fed two families. Now that was a third of the school.

There were always children in need with families experiencing housing deprivation, trauma and violence but a whole new cohort had joined those in need in recent years. “It’s horrendous … There is so much need out there.”

Kelly Barker, principal of Gracefield School, says a new cohort of families experiencing financial hardship have become reliant on the school to feed their children.

Gracefield School would previously have been considered a decile five school but was one of a growing number of middle income schools on the waiting list for support from KidsCan.

The charitable organisation provided meals to 55,000 kids a day across 900 schools, including 6500 children at early childhood centres.

It primarily supported schools with breakfast foods such as toast, spaghetti, baked beans, yoghurt and fruit along with “brain food” snacks, but also provided jackets, shoes and other basics for students in need.

KidsCan’s waiting list includes eight schools and early childhood centres in Wellington, says CEO and founder Julie Chapman.

KidsCan chief executive and founder Julie Chapman said its waitlist had grown to its largest number since the organisation started in 2005 with more than 260 schools and early childhood centres asking for support – adding to to more than 10,000 students.

Teachers reported students going to school with shoes taped together and living in overcrowded housing or in tents on lawns, Chapman said.

“We know kids’ brains don't switch on for learning if they are cold and wet and hungry, so we need to make sure that we are able to get those things to children on the waiting list so they can be like any other child and engage in learning and have that opportunity.”

The waitlist included eight schools and early childhood centres in Wellington. Three of the five schools were considered decile five.

Gracefield School had been on the waitlist since 2020.

More than 260 schools are on KidsCan’s waitlist, or more than 10,000 students waiting for support - the largest number the organisation has seen since it started in 2005. (File photo)

Families with two working parents were struggling to make ends meet, and shame and embarrassment meant some were not coming to school, Barker said.

The local marae helped provide food parcels and the school set aside a budget to fill in the gaps, providing breakfast, lunch, “whatever is needed … grabbing whatever we can get”.

Organisations like KidsCan helped remove stigma by providing for all children rather than highlighting those experiencing hardship.

But putting resource into the basics took away from putting more into their education itself.

“When their tummies are full, that’s one barrier removed for them … It's one barrier at a time right?” Barker said. “To know that they’re fed and they’re loved and they’re here to learn.”

Benjamin Garner, deputy principal of Trentham School says 30-50 children come to the school’s Breakfast Club.

Trentham School in Upper Hutt had also been on the KidsCan waitlist for almost three years.

It provided a Breakfast Club three times a week for its students. Increasingly, they saw older siblings of students at the primary school join with between 30 and 50 students attending each day.

The school was reliant on a local church donating food and one of the staff members providing spreads for toast, as well as support from charities including Kickstart.

But the need was much greater and staffing resource meant it could not run every day of the week, principal Cris Hull said.

It was important to start the day in the right frame of mind and the difference the breakfast made to students’ focus and ability to learn was blatant, Hull said.

A lack of access to basics including food, clothing and stationery hindered students’ ability to be at school – reflected in its attendance data which sat at 57%.

Having access to KidsCan support would “level out the playing field” for students and “remove the fence altogether”.

The cost of living crisis impacted donations, Chapman said. KidsCan was running an urgent appeal for those who were able to donate.

“The waiting list is quite overwhelming, and if we get enough people on board that can can make a one off donation or support monthly, then we'll be able to get kids the essentials that they need faster.”