School hunger crisis: KidsCan flooded with new pleas for food help – The Front Page

As children across New Zealand head back to school, many will be arriving without the basics.

Fifty-eight schools are starting 2026 on the waitlist for KidsCan, a charity that provides the essentials for Kiwi kids living in poverty.

A survey of waitlisted schools shows more than half provide breakfast for their students, often diverting funds from their operational budget.

So why, in 2026, are kids going to school hungry?

KidsCan CEO Dame Julie Chapman told The Front Page that when she founded the charity in 2005, they helped 40 schools.

“There were around 15,000 kids a day that we could identify through our research and surveys who were going hungry.

“On average, it might’ve been around 10% of a school role that needed that food support. That’s jumped up in the past 6 to 9 years to 25% to 30%. In some schools, it’s much higher.

“I think that’s why you’ve seen things like the introduction of the Government’s school lunch programme,” she said.

KidsCan currently provides food, clothing, and health products to Kiwi kids at 947 schools and more than 200 early childhood centres across the country.

The charity hopes to grow that list by 58 schools that are still waiting for help.

“When surveyed, 52 out of the 58 responded. I think 100% of them said that they have kids arriving at school without enough food or without any food.

“Over 65% of them are running breakfast clubs, and we also know that for a lot of them, they’re having to dip into their own school budgets, which are for teaching resources traditionally, to provide that support for their children,” Chapman said.

Written feedback from responding schools also found that children are missing school altogether because they have nothing for lunch, and that staff are personally providing food for students out of their own pockets.

Responding schools ranged from small rural schools (under 50 students) to large urban schools (over 500 students), indicating food insecurity is affecting schools of all sizes and locations.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

• KidsCan’s focus areas
• Approach to aid and the stigma around it
• Trends over time
• A call for support.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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