If the Government is so concerned about children in poverty, why does the appropriate minister not go to families from which these children come to find out the reason?
No New Zealand family is so poor that children need to go without breakfast and/or lunch.
The problem has to be one of priorities. In some cultures represented in New Zealand, the men come first in everything, women and children last; this is not the New Zealand way and not acceptable, irrespective of some people's customs. Why should taxpayers, donors and volunteers be feeding children other than their own and in some cases also providing wet weather clothing?
Another side to this problem is the large number of children in some families. Men who think big families are proof of their virility should be disabused of this fallacy. It needs to be pointed out it is their duty to put aside vanity and have only as many children as they can support.
In the meantime, since parents whose children are being given free meals are saved the cost of providing the food themselves, should they not be expected to make at least a gold coin donation towards each child's meal?
