Helping Children To Have Lunch
In New Zealand we have a large variety of families – from those who can afford expensive lunch boxes, and any kind of food they want; to those who have a plastic bag, which is sometimes full of nothing.
I and many others are fortunate (yep fortunate) enough to get lunch box shamed (even if it’s not cool) – because it means we have a lunch box with food in it for our kids to eat.
Not everyone has this luxury.
It is a real problem, and one of the big things to remember is: just because you don’t know it exists, doesn’t mean it doesn’t.
Children go to school every single day, without having breakfast and/or any lunch as well.
Obviously this impacts on the child’s learning.
Day in, and day out they are hungry at school. Their moods and behaviour will be affected, as well as their ability to focus on anything.
I know when I’m hungry I get grumpy and then all I can focus on is eating. Parenting my children while I’m “starving” is also an absolute chore. And we all know that my level of “starving” is hardly that of a child who hasn’t eaten properly in days.
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Over the years I’ve been exposed to many different stories, and my eyes have been opened to a reality I sort of knew, but didn’t really know of.
I know one of the things I struggle with personally is “how do I actually help these kids?” … well actually there are quite a few organisations out there ready to help them with projects and if you can you can donate to help keep these going and feeding our children.
If you can’t support these charities financially, then perhaps share them with your friends to help raise awareness:
- Kids Can
- Food Bank
- Eat My Lunch
- Feed The Need
- ABC Lunches
- The Kai Kitchen (Hawera)
- Kai For Kids (Porirua)
If you know of any other organisations that help to feed our children, let me know and I’ll add them to the list!
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