Media release from Every Child Counts

Comments on food in schools welcomed

The Community Campaign for Food in Schools launched last week to promote and support debate about the best way for New Zealand to meet the needs of the thousands of children who go to school hungry has welcomed comments today from the Children’s Commissioner, Dr Russell Wills.

“Dr Wills has correctly identified the need for discussion about food in schools to ensure that solutions recognise the many complex causes of child hunger and poverty and use limited resources to make a real difference to children's education and health outcomes. We welcome the important contribution of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner to this debate,” says Deborah Morris-Travers, manager of Every Child Counts.

“We agree that there is scope for businesses and communities to work in partnership with the government to provide food in schools, and that parents can be brought into the programmes to learn about nutrition, growing food and cooking. We also strongly support having other services available to families – such as social workers in schools – to help address underlying problems. Indeed, we consider there is scope for food in schools to be one of the services provided in a community hub model so that a range of services are available to children in schools and early childhood centres.

“While the Children’s Commissioner doesn’t consider that legislation is needed, the Community Campaign for Food in Schools is supporting the ‘Feed the Kids’ Bill as an opportunity for debate and public input. Food is a number one priority. The Bill highlights our shared responsibility for making sure children are nurtured in every way and offers the opportunity to introduce a national food in schools programme now.

“We encourage all political parties to work across party lines to agree on the measures that will ensure our nation’s poorest children and their parents are supported, starting with the comprehensive suite of measures identified by the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty.

“It is in our collective interests to address these issues in a collaborative way so that the solutions are sustained in the long-term,” concludes Ms Morris-Travers.

ENDS

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