How much does it cost to feed our children?

Email
Print

What's the cost to feed our children?

3News NZ

Could food be provided in schools?

Could food be provided in schools?

The cost of child poverty is estimated at somewhere between $5 billion and $10 billion a year.

Living in poverty means a great chance of a host of issues further down the line - health problems, higher unemployment, substance abuse, incarceration rates.

That's all in the future, but in the meantime one in 11 children are turning up to school without enough to eat, and if they aren't eating, they sure as hell aren't learning. What will that mean for their future prospects?

Earlier this week the Labour Party announced a policy to feed school children at a cost of $18 million. Hone Harawira has gone a step further - with a policy costing up to $100 million.

The Prime Minister has said that the private sector seems to be doing enough to meet the needs of children, and charity KidsCan says it can reach every hungry child in decile 1-4 who needs food - and it can do it for a fraction of the numbers being bandied about.

But it wants some help from the Government to do so.

Tonight, we hear that whatever the cost of providing food at schools may be, it's nothing compared to the future cost of not doing something.

Watch Lachlan Forsyth’s report.

Post a Comment

Before commenting, please take the time to read our moderation guide


(Won't be published)



Comments

24/09/2012 12:05:58 a.m.

jan.. wrote:

I agrees with MATT' winz should deduct $10 a week per child from parents on benefits to the school, and that will gurantee the children are fed each day with free milk supplied by the Government.. The estimation of the above mentioned reads at $50 million to $100 million per year and Hone Harawira caculation is right.. The above is not much to asked so why fuzz around, get on with it, problem solved..

19/09/2012 1:08:09 a.m.

Matt wrote:

take $2 or whatever the amount needed from the parents ( forcefully if required ) on a daily basis. Have a teacher go out with that money and purchase ingredients. Then every day, have different students do a morning cooking class, 10, 15, 20 students a day using those ingredients to cook lunch for the whole school. In this way, the kids get educated on good food and how to cook healthy tasty decent food, everyone gets fed every day, and the parents of the kids are paying for it. Those parents on benefits who refuse to pay see the money deducted by winz and given to the school, those working, if they refuse to pay, see it deducted from their employer and given to the school. $10 a week, per child will probably be more then enough to cover healthy cooked lunches plus cooking classes all week. For those kids with dietary needs, no problem, get those cooking to make 1 meat, 1 vegetarian, and 1 gluten free option with no nuts etc....problem solved.

18/09/2012 7:26:07 p.m.

Ponsonby Intermediate Kitchen wrote:

Easy - Bring back free milk! Fonterra where are you? Help me look. More tax breaks for local producers of fresh fruit and vege, and more local funding for community vege and garden projects please. Matt Baker Home Ec Teacher Decile 9 school.

18/09/2012 4:39:47 p.m.

Nick wrote:

Junk food is cheaper then healthy food, plain and simple.

18/09/2012 11:21:28 a.m.

KT wrote:

As a teacher in a lower decile school, I watch the kids lining up at the dairy across the road before school every day. They come out with hot chips, cans of V, chocolate bars cookies etc. So my issue is....parents are giving them money to buy food, so what do kids buy....junk. Same as what we saw on TV last night - packets of chips, fizzy and cookies for the few kids that did have lunch - all bought packet food. Ok so I will probably get shot for saying this, but surely if the parents can afford to spend $5 on a packet of chips, fizzy etc from the local dairy as so called "lunch", then it is either laziness or a lack of education of healthy food choices and spending money efficiently, NOT poverty. $5 a day per child to spend at the dairy is $25 a week - you can get bread, ham, lettuce and muesli bars for that price. I see it every day and when I question my kids, they say mum/dad gives them money each day for lunch....at times, the kids will produce a $20 to show me. If mum and dad had the knowledge of how to budget and shop for healthy eating, maybe we wouldn't have this problem. Oh and my kids regularly have a family pack from KFC for dinner at $20+. A poverty issue? Well I see it every day, no, I say its an education (lack of) and laziness issue. Oh and we provide fruit every day at our school, but many kids choose not to take it because their packet chips taste better - sugar, salt and fat is all they have ever known.

18/09/2012 5:53:59 a.m.

pondering wrote:

@JAN: I was thinking that. Those decile 10 parents put chips(cheap brands) and sugary junk and artificial cordial boxes in the kids lunches and nobody questioned it. Yet less of that goes in a decile 1 box and the reporter is all over it like a rabid dog. So the decile 1 kids get less unhealthy junk to eat. Decile 10 parents should be shamed. Lets just say when you get $500 or less a week income you get inventive and want the best for your dollar. What are better off parents spending their extra $2000 plus on after buying chips and fizz for school lunches??

17/09/2012 9:26:03 p.m.

Tia wrote:

Can we all stop focussing on what these parents are or are not doing , and feed the kids. We are fortunate to have a welfare system , and so many people are constantly complaining about taxes paying for the unemployed and unemployable. The alternative would be sopping

17/09/2012 7:46:26 p.m.

Louise wrote:

Love the kidscan idea. Love the idea of food stamps as part of welfare payments. Why not merge the two to ensure kids get good food at school as well as at home?

17/09/2012 7:36:19 p.m.

Ben wrote:

You would think that a marketing guru for tip top, for example would see the opportunity for some good will here and make a pledge to support kids cam, or some wealthy people with a vested interest in nz would come to the party and help these kids. cause yes the parents may be at fault but if kids don't learn and become productive they will be a future problem. come on nz we can have food bins for dogs at the spca, surely we can muster some community spirit for poverty stricken kids. Or if we are that heartless lets just create a generation of criminals and like mis-behaving dogs we could put them down.

17/09/2012 7:28:23 p.m.

Jan wrote:

Sending children to school with a packet of chips and a cookie time cookie is unacceptable, im sorry but these parents need to be held accountable! if you sent a note home to every parent of the children without food saying 'i noticed Johnny did not have any food today, care to explain?' i bet they would have food the next day.. it makes me SO angry, if you need help put your hand up, talk to the school, DONT send your children to school without lunch and without any explanation... disgusting! and by the way, if you can afford 2 packets of chips a can of drink and a cookie - you can afford a healthier option.. reeks of LAZY to me