"To be able to take these children off our waiting list in term one we need to raise awareness of the reasons why so many children are in hardship, along with much needed funds - in the vicinity of $360,000 annually."
The 6218 children attend 28 schools which are spread across New Zealand including Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu-Wanganui, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Canterbury, West Coast, and Otago.
"In the Bay of Plenty region there are 275 children who are waiting for our assistance from two schools, Te Wharekura o Mauao and Waiotahe Valley School," says Julie.
"While many in our community are beginning to share in the benefits of the economic recovery, the latest figures indicate there are still 260,000 (one in four) Kiwi kids living in hardship.
"One of the contributing factors is the cost of housing, with many families spending more than 60 per cent of their income on rent. This leaves very little money for food and other essentials such as petrol and clothing.
"Families in this position really struggle when unexpected costs such as doctors visits arise, and the food budget gets cut first so they can meet these costs. We believe this is a factor in the increased need we are seeing in schools throughout New Zealand."
Owhata Primary School principal, and president of the Rotorua Principals Association Bob Stiles says his school has been involved with KidsCan for around eight years and the assistance they have received has been amazing.
"I think it's a great organisation. Firstly, our children are always fed. There is always food for lunches. The KidsCan food is there for everybody and it's not a big deal if kids haven't got any food, they know where to go to get some.
"We have also had shoes and socks and raincoats, which means these kids are getting to school warm and dry. It's a great start to learning," he says.
"We are a lower decile school but even in schools with a higher decile rating there will still be kids that need some support. I think it's important that these schools that are waiting to get on board with KidsCan do so as soon as possible.
"It's really hard in small towns, like Waiotahe, where there is isolation in the community. We are lucky in that we have a lot of support from the local community when it comes to food. The dairies and supermarkets all help us out."
Meeting the extra expenses of back to school time is also stressful for low income families, and KidsCan is calling for more caring Kiwis to support a child in need for $15 a month (50 cents a day) through its 'In Our Own Backyard' programme. This money provides a child with food at school, a raincoat, shoes, socks and basic health and hygiene items.
All of the donated funds go to meeting the needs of the children.
The current KidsCan 'Food for Kids' programme helps more than 15,000 children a week, thanks to generous funding from Government, individual donors, trusts and foundations, corporate partners and principal partner, Meridian Energy.
In addition, more than 98,000 items of clothing and 90,000 health and hygiene items, such as head-lice treatments, dental kits, plasters and tissues, were provided last year.
For more information on how to support the 'In Our Own Backyard' programme go to www.kidscan.org.nz.
