Last week, the Prime Minister, John Key, said that the government would give some money for free breakfasts in some schools. Already Sanitarium provides Weetbix and Fonterra provides milk for breakfast in some schools twice a week. Now there will be some extra money to provide free breakfast five mornings a week in schools where children often come to school hungry. Low decile schools – decile 1 to 4 – can apply for this if they want it. Decile means 10% and decile 1 schools are those schools where parents’ income is in the lowest 10% range.
A charity, Kids Can, also provides lunches, raincoats, shoes and socks to children in 279 schools. Many businesses and individuals donate money to help. The money now helps 4,500 children.
It is shocking that our country has many poor children who do not have enough food. The OECD, which compares 34 developed countries in the world, believes that as many as 25% of all New Zealand children – about 270,000 – live in poverty. More are Maori and Pacific Island children.
The report on Child Poverty from the Child Commissioner last December makes 78 recommendations to help poor families. One recommendation was to provide free food in schools for children who need it.
Vocabulary
• provide – give, supply
• decile – 10% (what other words begin with dec and mean 10?)
• range – amount
• donate – give money
• charity – an organization which helps people who need help e.g. poor people
• shocking – terrible, really bad
• OECD – Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
• poverty (n) – being poor
• Child Commissioner – a person whose job is to look after the rights of children, especially in education and health
• recommendations – strong suggestions