Jo Taylor - Kai for Kids

The Government has decided to pull funding from Kai for Kids supplying three local schools. Gutting news for our awesome team on the ground. However, they are determined to keep boxing on for the sake of many other local Tamariki. Jo Taylor was in to share the future for this wonderful local charity. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Government shakeout of the free school lunches program has hit
home here in Ashburton from our Kai for Kids Joe
Taylor Morning, Good Morning Lake So written article a little
earlier this week that we've lost a couple of schools
with a program revamp we have.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yes, there was a tender process for a three dollar
lunch program which is the new national direction, and that
has gone to another provider. And yeah, we put in
a four dollar bed, so we weren't quite successful in that.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
That's pretty good to get a school lunch down to
four bucks a pop.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
We've worked pretty hard to do that.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Now.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
I bet it is disappointing, but as I said in
your you said in your intro, we're still really positive.
We still support two hundred children in eight other schools
and we support the local Kindy's melnisk and Hampstead Candys.
We feed all the kids there and a few others
at some of the other Kindy's as well. So we've

(01:01):
still got a mission to support and nourish the children
in mid Canterbury and we're not going anywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
So how does that all work? How come some schools
get government funding and others don't.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
So it's based on the school's equity index. So every
school has an equity index that rates essentially they're socioeconomic demographic.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Used to be the souls just used to be the Delts.
That's old old.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
You would have heard disol SEXTL ten. That all went
out the window a few years ago and it's been
replaced with something called an equity index, and that rates
the schools on a slightly broader category. And so throughout
New Zealand, the schools that are in the what are
considered the twenty five percent lowest, it's actually the highest

(01:49):
equity index shows the highest need and they qualify for
yours free lunch program throughout the country.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
So who are the ones that you're losing if.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
You haven't in the Canterbury that is Chertsey School, Ashburton
never Be school in Hempstead's.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
For not never be. That's where it all started.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
That is indeed, I know that ground zero is that
is where KAIFA kids got started. With support from Advanced
Ashburton in our local community, we're able to start doing
lunches there long before the lunch program had even started
throughout the country. So that one, yeah, probably it hurts
just a little bit, but We're still going to support them.

(02:26):
We are committed to continuing to provide morning tea for them.
A three dollar lunch is not going to go very
far to feed those children, so we're going and it
certainly won't have any fresh fruit and vegetables involved or
home baking, so our team is committed to still be
cutting up fruit and providing those morning tea boxes which
is packed full of fruit and a piece of home baker.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
How do you achieve all that? So where's all your
funding come from? Now?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
We are going to well, we have an amazing team
of volunteers that come in a couple on a Tuesday
morning and a couple on a Wednesday morning, and men,
can they man a pikelot grill like you've never seen
turn out eight hundred pikelots in a few hours, so
that we'll still be carrying on. We also make muffins

(03:12):
by the hundreds and so that lovely work will continue,
and with support from the community, we will be doing
some more of our own fundraising next year. It was
just at a meeting last night, so we're hoping to
pull together some clever fundraising next year and just to
keep providing our kids with good nourishment. Yeah right, yeah,

(03:34):
that's our mission.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Not all hope has lost in the sense that it's
only a year long contract, right, so if you wanted to,
you could pitch again next year.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, we'll have a big long think about that and
look at where we could sit. Obviously a lot can
change in a year, and so we will certainly be
sitting back and looking. But we're here to help the
children and if there's a need and we see that
we can meet that need, then where their boots are.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Oh look, it's a wonderful attitude. I really feel for
yourself and the team. I know we have to say
goodbye to a couple of members as a result of this,
but the fact that it's not a death blow, the
fact that you know, this wonderful thing that we've built,
Skai for kids is going to fight another day and
to keep nourishing local Tamariki that Warm's missule Joe.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Great looking at Warm's mine and so many others as well.
We still have an amazing team that are here to
support our community, and in turn, our community is amazing
at supporting us to help us support those children.