More than 6,000 families in KidsCan’s partner early childhood centres have received holiday food packs to ease the burden of food insecurity this Christmas. The new initiative was made possible with the support of Graeme and Robyn Hart and delivered by Bidfood. Our team visited Te Papapa Preschool in Auckland to help pack.
Seven giggling toddlers bounce up and down on a branch of a giant Pōhutukawa which sprawls across the outdoor play area at Te Papapa Preschool. Beneath them, their friends are playing ‘Floor is Lava’ - dancing up a storm until the music stops and they run to the edge, screaming.
Today, all 41 families here will go home with a special delivery. Inside the centre, boxes upon boxes of food are being packed: fresh fruit and veggies, lamb shoulders, chickens, a raft of pantry staples, and Christmas treats. The older kids are helping KidsCan’s staff, ferrying 1kg bags of pasta and rice, and carefully placing shortbread biscuits and chocolate into each bag.
“It's just overwhelmingly, amazingly exciting,” Centre Manager Liz Ferris says. “This year has been really tough on families. The money that they're earning is just not stretching. They're just not covering the necessities.”
She says this Christmas some families aren’t even thinking about presents – staff have been trying to help source gifts for the kids themselves – but the food delivery changes that.
“Our families are so excited. One mum cried and said, ‘Instead of buying the food, I can now buy presents.’ For the children to be able to wake up on Christmas morning and have presents under the tree, I mean, that's so important and so exciting.
“And the food is amazing. You'd never buy lamb because it's just so expensive. So now they're going to have lamb at Christmas, and it's beyond measurable.”
Liz says the hardship she’s seeing this year is like Covid times. More families couldn’t afford heating in winter, and others moved in together so they could split the cost of rent. If appliances broke, they couldn’t replace them. They’re stories echoed in KidsCan’s partner schools and early childhood centres nationwide.
“We've had families that were just resorting to putting their milk in a sink with ice water so that it didn't go off because they didn't have a fridge freezer.”
Liz says KidsCan’s regular support – daily lunches, snacks, warm jackets, shoes, socks and gumboots – has been crucial.
“We had a huge uptake on the jackets for our children and gumboots and shoes, so at least we knew their feet were warm and their bodies were warm.”
Today the children sit outside at tables under the Pōhutukawa for lunch. It’s their favourite - spaghetti bolognese – and their bowls are soon emptied and replenished.
“The fact that we can provide food for our children, and we know that they're full - I still always feel so blessed that we're able to do this,” Liz says. “We notice a huge difference in our children and how happy they are and how they just play – and that’s what they should be doing – not having the stressors of not having any food in their tummy. It’s a joy.”
As their parents arrive to pick up their parcels, they’re overwhelmed by how much food there is.
“I was just amazed, like how fresh it is, and there’s heaps. Like – is this all coming to me?!” one mum said. “It's a massive relief. It’s been a really hard year living week to week, paycheck to paycheck. It’s just taken that brick off my shoulders.”
She said she would use the money saved on food to buy presents, pay bills, and get petrol to go to the beach on Christmas day.
Another mum said it would make a big difference to her family’s Christmas. “We want to make Christmas special for the kids, but everything's so expensive now. I'm pretty good at sticking to a budget but this year I just could not make it work. It has been really tough.”
Liz says while their mission as a preschool is to nurture and educate children, wrapping their families in support too is what really makes a difference.
“I wish that we weren’t living in a society where the need for just basic things like food and clothing wasn't so huge at the moment, but we do. And initiatives like these food parcels, you just can't even explain the amount of appreciation that our families have to be gifted things like this at Christmas time.”
