Preschool poverty: Kids turning up with no food or shoes

KidsCan's early childhood programme provides food, a raincoat, shoes and headlice treatments. Photo / Supplied

A young girl saved her sandwich crusts from daycare and wrapped them up to take home to her mummy - just one of the desperate measures families are taking as they struggle to make ends meet due the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Other babies and young children are increasingly turning up to childcare centres cold and hungry as their parents barely have enough money to pay rent, let alone anything else.

Since New Zealand came out of lockdown in April - KidsCan has seen an almost 30 per cent rise in the number of early childhood centres waiting for assistance from its programme which provides food, raincoats, shoes and headlice treatments.

Poetiare O Rongomai Punanga Reo centre manager Dorothy Ram said Covid-19 had put extra stress on many already struggling families who had seen their hours decreased or had lost their jobs entirely.

She managed three centres catering for children from nine months to six years and only one received the KidsCan funding, while the other two were on the wait list.

She said the funding had made a massive difference to the children at its Otara centre and receiving the healthy meals, raincoats and shoes was like Christmas for them. She had also seen a change in their behaviour and attitudes.

"I guess because they know they have an abundance of food now so they are very confident. They are generally happy - they know they have something to look forward to."

She said if families in their community couldn't afford lunch for their children then their families didn't send them to school because they were embarrassed.

"Because of that fact children usually don't come into school Monday and Tuesday maybe benefit doesn't come until Wednesday and you are lucky if you see them on Friday."

And when children did turn up - about half didn't have lunches or even school bags and the only shoes they might wear would be jandals in both summer and winter.

KidsCan has been hearing numerous heartbreaking stories from early childhood centres about how some families were struggling to make ends meet and founder Julie Chapman said they needed to urgently help these children.

One young girl wrapped up the crusts from her sandwiches to take home to her mum, while a childcare centre couldn't take the children for walks because they had no shoes.

"Increasingly their families cannot make ends meet. Teachers have told us of siblings with only a packet of two-minute noodles to share for the day, of children shivering without enough warm clothes and of several families crammed into houses to afford rent, including 11 people in a two-bedroom home."

The pilot started in 2018 and currently supports 61 centres - with 119 waiting for help.

A study by the University of Waikato found that the initiative is making a difference to the young children and had resulted in the children being more engaged from having good nutrition and warm clothing, they were presenting with fewer coughs and colds, and meant that the centres could redirect the money spent on providing food on educational resources, better environments and on teaching the children.

University of Waikato school of education associate professor Sally Peters said the teachers interviewed reported a real change in how the children participated in learning opportunities when their tummies were full.

Because KidsCan rolled out the programme to the entire centre, it also removed any stigma, she said.

The programme including providing a Heart Foundation approved menu designed to ensure kids are getting more vegetables and quality protein in their diet.

Heart Foundation food and nutrition manager Dave Munro said there were a range of longer term consequences for kids exposed to poor diets early in life.

Neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis said New Zealand needed to put more focus on the early childhood sector and feeding kids was a smart investment.

"Good nutrition is crucial because a child's brain is just not going to develop without it. Being hungry denies them the ability to grow their frontal cortex, to be able to access their ability regulate emotions and prevent anxiety and depression."