The charity currently has an early childhood programme which provides healthy lunches, snacks, raincoats, shoes and headlice treatment for kids under 5.
One of the centres waiting is Barnardos Early Learning Centre in Hastings, which has been waiting for about five months for KidsCan help.
Centre manager Diane Rudge said for many of the families there is "a lot of insecurity in the long term" regarding job and income uncertainty and unsettledness due to Covid-19.
The centre wants KidsCan to provide lunches and wet-weather gear.
It currently provides a school lunch every day as prior to this staff would often have to find extra food for the children. Rudge hopes when KidsCan is able to provide food the money currently spent on this can be used to fund equipment for the children.
Their existing lunch programme costs about $250 a week plus wages to pay a cook.
Rudge said a lot of the centre's families cannot afford wet-weather gear, which can be expensive and grown out of quickly, so it would be beneficial to have this on hand at the centre.
She said especially after being inside during lockdown, it is important to be able to get the kids outside whenever possible, even in the wet weather.
The free school lunch government programme in primary schools and secondary schools is something she feels would be beneficial if it was extended to early childhood centres.
"The parents just can't afford it, that's the reality.
"The best we can do is to get help for the children where we can, rather than worry where the money that does come into the household is going to," she said.
Head teacher at Wairoa Kindergarten Linda Ojala said they applied for KidsCan funding about a month ago as they have about a sixth of their 30 children not coming to kindy on Mondays and Tuesdays as they don't have food to bring.
She said the centre has both families that can provide everything their children need and others who do their best but cannot make ends meet.
The centre will provide food if families need but they feel ashamed or embarrassed so KidsCan-supplied food and resources would "put everyone on a level playing field".
There are also children coming to school with unhealthy food such as packaged food from the dairy, so being able to provide the kids with healthy lunches is also important to the centre.
Some of the children are also being raised by their great grandparents or come from larger families, so being able to provide some food and clothing would take one of their stresses away.
Kids' Corner and Kids' House in Wairoa is one of the centres currently receiving support from KidsCan.
They save $30,000 at the two centres now that KidsCan provides food, which has meant they can buy resources and lower fees.
Housing in the area is also an issue, with rents and demand rising, so Toothill sees being able to provide food and some clothing, shoes and headlice treatment through KidsCan as alleviating a cost for the families.
When there's extra food, clothing or toothbrushes, the centre puts it out for the centre's families to take for their other children and Toothill said it's beneficial so parents who do need a bit extra don't feel embarrassed asking for it.
With government funding, the University of Waikato conducted interviews with teachers and whānau in seven centres before and after the KidsCan early childhood programme started.
They also gathered data from teachers and whānau in 24 centres.
It found that good nutrition and clothing meant the children were more engaged in learning, had increased energy and attention spans; there were fewer minor health issues resulting in fewer absences; and the centres which had been providing food themselves instead spent the money on educational resources, improving their environments and devoted more time to teaching.
The report's lead author, Associate Professor Sally Peters from Waikato University's School of Education, said an unexpected bonus of the programme was the sense of wellbeing and community.
"One of the really important things that KidsCan does is providing the programme to everybody because then there's no stigma. It was a weight off the shoulders of struggling families."
