With over 4000 volunteers from the wider community who generously give their time and energy supporting the programme, 70 million breakfasts have been served —and counting.
Senior Relationship Manager in the Co-op’s Community team, Tracey Putt said, Fonterra was proud to work closely with Sanitarium and MSD to positively impact communities throughout New Zealand.
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“KickStart Breakfast wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of Fonterra farmers, whose good-quality dairy nutrition is helping give so many Kiwi kids a nutritious start to their day,” she told The Country Sport Breakfast’s Craig Cumming.
Cumming said, “I imagine you’re seeing great results from the programme. It’s an excellent way to start the day”.
Putt said the results went beyond the breakfast table.
“[There are] benefits like higher school attendance, improved behaviours and greater educational outcomes for students.
“It creates a safe space where everyone is welcome, which helps students connect and build social skills.
“Even better, those impacts ripple out to benefit whānau and the wider community, which creates a positive environment for young people to grow.”
Fonterra says KickStart Breakfast is unique because it is the only food programme in New Zealand that any public school can join.
There are schools from the Cape to the Bluff and right out to Chatham Islands, Matakana and Great Barrier Island.
It’s designed to be flexible to fit the needs of individual schools so they can run the programme from once a week to every school day.
While KickStart Breakfast supplies Anchor milk and Sanitarium Weet-Bix, it’s up to each school to provide the rest; the bowls and cutlery, the space and the people to run the breakfast club.
“So many schools have created a fantastic and inviting breakfast club space for their students to come together to KickStart their school day which is pretty awesome,” Putt said.
