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Children’s primary school years are some of the most important when it comes to growth and development, both mentally and physically. Giving them the right nutritional tools can help grow strong, healthy, happy kids, and changing your diet for the better is a habit that benefits the whole family.
It is well known that calcium plays some pivotal roles in maintaining good health – from keeping bones healthy and strong to helping prevent high blood pressure – and it even helps your calcium from food, it steals calcium from your bones to help keep a steady amount in your blood, but it can be fairly easy to meet your daily calcium needs if you regularly enjoy dairy.
There’s good reason New Zealand Dietary Guidelines recommend school children consume at least two to three servings every day of milk or dairy. Dairy products such as milk, cheese and yoghurt contain nutrients, including calcium, that are critical to bone growth and development during childhood.
Children aged one to three need milk). Children aged four to eight need 800mg of calcium or three servings daily, whilst children aged nine to 18 need 1300mg of calcium or four servings daily. These goals are not too hard to achieve if you serve your kids milk, cheese or yoghurt each day.
New Zealanders have traditionally drunk a lot of milk, but recently that’s been in decline. Milk offers a unique combination of nutrients that are essential for children’s growth and development, making it an absolute must in their day. There aren’t many foods that offer the same package of nutrients, so make sure your kids get into the habit today!
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It’s all too often rushed, eaten on the run or forgotten completely. But, as the most important meal of the day, breakfast is essential for growing Kiwi kids, and for so many reasons. Eating a nutritious breakfast can have positive effects on learning, overall health and wellbeing, and there are numerous studies out there showing that kids who eat breakfast do better in school.
International research shows eating breakfast can improve cognitive (brain) function in essential areas such as memory and test scores. It even helps improve school attendance. Children who eat breakfast also tend to behave better, get along with other kids and are more attentive — all of which can positively affect their academic performance in the long run.
Breakfast provides young Kiwis with 16 per cent of their daily energy intake and literally ‘breaks’ their overnight ‘fast’, replenishing much needed nutrients and providing kids with energy to start their day. Choosing the right breakfast not only fuels the body and brain, but contributes to the overall nutrient content of a diet. Kids who eat breakfast regularly tend to consume more calcium, dietary fibre, zinc, riboflavin, iron and vitamins A and C – all essential for growth.
Worryingly, the New Zealand 2002 National Children’s Nutrition Survey found that 17 per cent of Kiwi children don’t eat anything in the morning before setting off for school, and that number has only increased with time.
Getting your children to start the day off the right way needn’t be a big deal, so start by taking steps to make the morning madness a little less hectic. Prepare food the evening before or pack a breakfast-to-go. Remember, you are your child’s role model. If you sit down for breakfast, they’re more likely to join you.
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After only five weeks running its KickStart Breakfast club, kids at Parakai School, just north of Auckland are reaping the benefits, Principal Sean Valvoi says.
‘We have noticed that those children who are having breakfast at school, and may have missed out on
the opportunity at home, are much more settled and focused in class and have more energy to get them through the day,’ he says.
Up to 25 children at a time eat a hearty bowl of Weet-Bix and Anchor milk at the twice weekly breakfast club and Sean says he’s grateful that the school is able to offer them a meal so easily.
‘We were having children coming to school and asking us if we could make them something to eat. We
would always make them something, but for every child who has the confidence to come up and ask there are others who don’t and KickStart Breakfast removes that barrier for them.’
‘I really thought the kids could benefit from having something like a breakfast club at the school so they could have a really positive start to their day.’ Rachael Tamatahi-Davies, Parakai School Breakfast Club Coordinator.
Parent Rachael Tamatahi-Davies has been the driving force in setting the programme up. The mother of three began noticing that some of pupils were arriving in the mornings looking hungry and tired so she decided that something needed to be done.
Having heard about the benefits of the KickStart Breakfast programme, and with Sean’s permission, Rachael went online and looked up the KickStart Breakfast website.
‘The joining process couldn’t have been easier. We just went online and filled out the forms,’ she says. ‘Everything has happened really quickly and it has been simple to organise.’ With the help of a teacher aide and another volunteer, Rachael runs the programme every Monday and Wednesday morning at the small decile three school.
By offering pupils breakfast twice a week at school, it is hoped a pattern will be formed and replicated at home, leading to an improvement to the overall health of the children’s family. The KickStart Breakfast programme has been designed to work as a partnership between Fonterra, Sanitarium and the school community.
By focusing on supplying the food for the programme rather than the logistics of staffing it, more schools have been able to enrol. Now almost 50 per cent of the eligible decile one to four schools have KickStart Breakfast on board and it is hoped more will follow suit.
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While some children might grumble about having to get out of bed extra early on a school morning, ten year old Ranapia doesn’t mind one bit.
He’s happy to get going because it means he can get stuck in to helping to set up his school’s KickStart Breakfast club, and fulfill his role as a school leader, a job he is pretty proud of.
By the time children start rolling through the doors of room 11a at James Street Primary School in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Ranapia and the other student leaders have already brought the milk and Weet-Bix across from another block, filled up a bucket with hot water and washing liquid, laid out the bowls and spoons and organised tea towels so that everything is ready.
“I get a breakfast at home and when I found out about this I thought I could give it a go and become one of the leaders of the school,” says Ranapia. “I like being able to help the little kids.”
The decile two school joined the KickStart Breakfast club two years ago and up to 25 children attend. Principal Norah Schreiber says they chose this programme because it ticked all the boxes for them when they were looking for a way to improve the health and learning of their pupils.
“The Health Promotion team identified that by having a breakfast club at the school we would see huge benefits,” she says.
“It just makes the children more ready to learn. Everybody is welcome, so there is no stigma attached and it’s just a wonderful way for children to start the day around a table with their friends.”
Fonterra and Sanitarium provide the only products that make up the KickStart Breakfast while the school community manages the delivery. At James Street School this responsibility is handled efficiently by the Year Six Breakfast club monitors who are rostered on throughout the week.
“The children have been fantastic! It’s one of the leadership opportunities we have at the school and they are so enthusiastic and take it very seriously.”
Teachers will pop in to make sure things are running smoothly, but Ranapia and his fellow monitors always
have things under control. “The rules are you can only have two Weet-Bix each and you have to wash your dishes. Mostly I wash up for the little ones because they don’t know how,” he says.
The enthusiasm for healthy eating has spread at the school and last month they hosted a “Healthy Learners” day beginning with a shared breakfast with parents and whanau, followed by learning activities, a picnic lunch and an afternoon of sport.
“We are really focused on teaching personal responsibility, health, good manners and leadership,” says Norah.
“As well as helping the children get a good breakfast in the morning, KickStart Breakfast has really helped us to deliver all those things. We are really thrilled we are able to have it.”
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If you are one of our wonderful Breakfast Club Co-ordinators you should have received your copy of the New Zealand Women’s weekly.
This is just a small appreciation of all the hard work you do for the children of your cubs. You are there every morning and the children think you are pretty special, and so do we.
Over the years, we have been fortunate to meet some of these neat people and experience the breakfast clubs first hand. We have been blown away, inspired and humbled.
So we feel it is important to give recognition to our unsung heroes of the clubs, acknowledge our schools’ commitment and also highlight to other schools the options available to them.
And if you want to be involved in telling the KickStart story, or know somebody whom you believe should be recognised, we would love to hear from you, email us at kickstart.breakfast@fonterra.com.
Read our Everyday Heroes stories about Betty and Alice (North New Brighton School, Christchurch), Debbie and Gordon (Lincoln Heights School, Massey Auckland) and Franchisees Sue and Leonard Kay (Fresh Milk Hawkes Bay) below.
Enjoy reading
