Editorial: Child neglect demands community involvement

It's a sad fact of life that children are neglected or have to go hungry in the Western Bay.
There will be people who struggle to believe or comprehend that such a thing could be happening. After all, there is plenty of wealth here and it is generally accepted we live in a desirable, seaside community.
But scratch beneath the surface and all is most certainly not well.
In last Saturday's Bay of Plenty Times Weekend, we broke the story of the starving Bay boy who was so hungry he ate a cockroach. The story, revealed by Homes of Hope, was picked up by national media and has shocked people in the community.
It is an extreme example, but there are plenty of other disturbing cases.
And as much as it would be nice to believe this is not a widespread problem, there is evidence to the contrary.
On page 9 today, we investigate further and discover plenty of children are going to school hungry, and child abuse and neglect in our slice of paradise has been labelled worse than what happens in Cape Town, South Africa.
School principals and Budget Advisory Service have painted a picture of poverty- where parents struggle to put food on the table and kids arrive at school with empty stomachs.
The problem and the reasons for it are complex, but no child should ever be abused or neglected or go hungry.
Parents should have an instinctive responsibility to ensure their children come first every time. Feeding them should be at the top of the list.
Tauranga Budget Advisory Service's Marjorie Iliffe says these struggling families often put rent, phone and power ahead of food. Certainly a roof overhead and power to keep warm are important, but a phone is not an essential compared with food.
The sad thing is many parents will selfishly put items such as alcohol or cigarettes ahead of food for their children.
It's one thing for adults to skip meals, but not 6-year-olds.
Thankfully, good people are doing good things to help in this region. Agencies such as Homes of Hope, Food Bank and Budget Advice fulfil a critical role and deserve the community's full support.
In our Inside Story section today, we meet Jeanette and Dean Davis, who run one of the three Homes of Hope houses in Tauranga. They are amazing, inspirational people.
While government agencies such as CYF and the likes of Homes of Hope are there to pick up the pieces in bad cases, there will be other cases that don't quite qualify for such a level of intervention.
It is incumbent upon relatives, friends, neighbours and other parts of the community such as schools to recognise when a child is not being fed properly, is neglected or, worse still, being abused.
It is the duty of us all to get involved in these cases - or at least raise the alarm.
Doing nothing will not help these kids. Doing something will make a difference and might even safe a life.