Hot lunches being enjoyed at one of the schools receiving support from KidsCan. Photo / Stephen Parker, File
Hot lunches being enjoyed at one of the schools receiving support from KidsCan. Photo / Stephen Parker, File
EDITORIAL
That more than 50,000 children are going without food in this world-envied cornucopia of a nation should be an abhorrence to stir all of us to act.
This week it was reported that among the 1000 schools and daycares that Kidscan supports, the number of children needing food supporthad risen from 44,000 in Term 1 and 2 to 54,500 in the current term.
Food prices are at a 13-year high, with data from Stats NZ last week showing prices rose 8.3 per cent in the year to September, including a 16 per cent increase for fruit and vegetables. This is being driven by a combination of pandemic supply problems, the war in Ukraine, labour shortages and tough local growing conditions.
The latest official data on child poverty last week showed material deprivation rates were falling, but those gains were uneven and the data did not cover the full impact of Covid-19, the cost of living crisis, the Government’s response to it - or even children in temporary homes such as emergency housing.
Parents and caregivers are often at fault but it reflects poorly on those who apportion blame without at least suggesting solutions. Families caught in the poverty trap of earning little more than enough to pay the rent do not need to be told they have not done well enough for their children.
Illustration / Daron Parton
Some parents need to make better choices for their children and those that do not, or cannot, should be identified by authorities and helped to improve their decision-making.
Those being affected in today’s circumstances aren’t just those who have chosen not to feed their children breakfast. As Kidscan founder and chief executive, Julie Chapman, put it: “Parents are living in deficit every week.”
Such is the scale of the deprivation we are experiencing that micro and maximum solutions should be rolling out apace. Families with enough should be looking at how they can support others.
Ministries and agencies should be energised to aid successful community-based initiatives that put food in these mouths.
Yesterday, however, the Government ruled out additional support for Kiwis struggling with rapidly rising living costs.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the Government doesn’t intend to extend the temporary removal of fuel taxes, provide another iteration of the Cost of Living Payment, or make income tax changes to support low-income earners.
He instead stressed his commitment to ensuring government spending is targeted.
Yes, he has the big picture to focus on and there are welfare packages available. The minimum wage was raised by $1.20 an hour to $21.20 in April, while the starting-out and training minimum wage increased from $16 to $16.96.
But both increases were exactly 6 per cent, marginally above the rate of consumer inflation back then at a 31-year high and since swallowed up by the 7.2 per cent rate.
The Government can point all it likes to what support it has already given but these gestures are not putting food in more than 54,000 young mouths.
