'The hardest winter for families' - Educators prepare for hungry kids as Covid-19 unemployment takes its toll

Unemployment due to Covid-19 is expected to affect those most vulnerable.

As term three gets underway today, hundreds of schools are preparing to see Kiwi kids in hardship face their toughest winter yet.

South Auckland’s Manurewa High School is just one example, with principal Pete Jones telling 1 NEWS, “sadly I think things will get worse, before it gets better”.

The school usually feeds around 400 at its breakfast and lunch clubs, and post-Covid-19 is noticing new students are coming along.

“What we’re starting to see is different faces who weren’t there before Covid, but perhaps their family circumstances have changed,” Mr Jones said.

“Our community has been really hard hit … the projections for Manurewa is that it’s going to have much higher unemployment than the average for New Zealand.”

His school is one of around 800 supported by children’s charity KidsCan, which, over the next 10 days is distributing a record 211 tonnes of food.

The economic impact of Covid-19 continues to hit children living in hardship, the charitable organisation found.

The charity says that’s 40 per cent more than was needed in term two, with its Auckland warehouse overflowing.

Chief executive Julie Chapman said, “as a result of job losses, redundancies, wage subsidies coming to an end we’ve seen this huge increase in need”.

“This is going to be probably the hardest winter for families and their children,” she said.

Mr Jones said he’s already seeing the second wave of economic downturn in his community.

“[KidsCan’s] work is crucial, it’s vital, it’s needed, it shouldn’t be in a country like New Zealand but it is,” he said.

It was recently revealed the Covid-19 crisis could see 70,000 more children move into poverty. 

Ms Chapman said, “you’ll have some families that were getting by and they might have been the families bringing an extra sandwich for other kids, they are now in desperate need of support themselves”.

“Some [families] are spending days without power in cold rentals as they can’t afford to top up the meter. They’re sacrificing food. It means more children are coming to school hungry and cold, and that’s deeply concerning.” 

1 NEWS visited the charity’s warehouse this morning, where 12 volunteers were busy packing pallets.

The aim is to get 80 to 100 pallets out per day, with over 800 going out in total.

Julie Chapman says they're beginning their biggest distribution ever after the Covid-19 outbreak.

KidsCan Operations and Procurement Manager Alastair Campbell told 1 NEWS they’re getting a wider range of items out to the schools in need.

“In the past we would have only two or three different hot meals, this time we have seven or eight,” he said.

It include soups, tortellini, butter chicken, beef chilli, chicken stroganoff and rice. Snack items include muesli bars and scroggin.

Mr Campbell added that international shipping delays had been a challenge, particularly with items like rice and peach pottles.

On top of around 800 schools, KidsCan supports close to 60 early childhood centres, with nearly 100 more centres which have asked for help.

The charity is working to expand the programme as quickly as possible.

"No child should be sitting in class feeling hungry or cold,” Ms Chapman said.

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