Waatea News Column: Dear Jacinda – we need to feed the kids!
Food inflation is at a 30 year high.
First time home buyers are facing rapidly skyrocketing mortgages.
Renters are being pushed to the brink.
More children are living in cars than we recorded in 2017 when Labour first came to Government.
27 000 are on emergency housing wait lists.
Our truancy rates are soaring.
It’s time to feed the kids Prime Minister.
Free nutritious breakfasts and lunches at every school with enough funding to facilitate community and school gardens to build community food resilience is what is called for as these problems become more pressing.
This funding would provide resource for local solutions and empowers communities to gain a level of self reliance.
Parents should be encouraged to gain part time work for helping to serve and grow food while enabling schools to be community education programs after hours and resourced with direct access to social services.
There are many pressures upon global capitalism right now, most we have little control over. The stresses and strains on our economy are being mirrored in our wider society every week in domestic violence, mental health and crime.
We urgently need big ideas to deal with the current level of damage our communities are already struggling with.
The poorest always get hit hardest meaning Māori, Pacifica, beneficiaries, renters and the disabled are the first to be hurt by any economic recession.
Free breakfasts and lunches would remove a huge weekly cost to struggling parents while building food security resilience in every school.
The window to being this bold is closing.
First published on Waatea News.
When I retired I volunteered with Banardos to teach families to cook basic meals with the vegetables they were taught to grown by another volenteer. When Labour came to power they stopped the funding with a promise to replace it with a better model .5 years on and still no new policy . I am sure both parties are guilty of this change for change sake but why is it aways the poorest that are made to suffer the most .
Broccoli 2 for $3 pak n save, good size heads. Baked beans and spaghetti 3 for $5. In store made steak and onion sausages $6.50 for an 8 pack.
Shop around, it is easy if you try.
I realise the PM is responsible for everything, laziness is not one of them.
” she’s a commie” commentators aside, poor choices make up a large percentage of those struggling.
I agree with you sentiments . The problem is many will walk past the fruit and veg isle and grab a frozen meal or something from the deli dept .
Thank you Trevor and I agree we live in an age of convenience( frozen foods), people do make poor choices, it is clearly lost on Bob. He is happy to demean others opinions but is actually short on solutions to this problem.
Tax the farmers and make their fertilizer more expensive, that will help for sure.
Jacinda is following the Srilankan model as it worked so well for them.
Raise wages: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/477972/countdown-worker-s-pay-rise-could-lay-groundwork-for-sector-wide-change-union
Make the rich pay
Problem is the rich don’t give a hoot till it bites them on the arse. Because the rich in there own little bubble gated in usually it won’t affect them until things get way worse. At that point the rich will fly off to a another locale.
2023 will be brutal for sure.
The only upside as I see is that the pain will be visited upon those that predominantly voted for this government. Some people are slow learners.
Err wrong, it’s been more pleasure than pain, particularly the wage increases, not seen during Nationals long hard, corrupt 9 years. Seems you’re the slow one.