24 July 2024
Unsung Heroes
Locations Waikato Categories Volunteer Community Stories
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Next month, KickStart Breakfast celebrates 15 years of providing breakfast to schools across Aotearoa. The success of KicKStart Breakfast comes down to each and every one of our schools and the incredible volunteers who are the real unsung heroes of the programme. A collective group of over 4,000 individuals support our KickStart Breakfast clubs with some generously providing their time and energy since 2009.
We reached out to hear from the wonderful Janine from the mighty Waikato who is one of our long-standing unsung heroes!
When the program first started I was at a rural school with 300 plus students from a farming community. There was a great need as lots of the students traveled to school by bus and left home early, as well as low socioeconomic families in a small rural town. We started it off as a before-school club where the kids could come and hang out, and listen to music in a warm environment with the bonus of having breakfast.
We served Weet-Bix and hot or cold milk etc as well as Weet-Bix sandwiches*.😁 A favorite from my childhood!
*Weet-Bix biscuits spread with butter and peanut butter, jam or marmite and the top put back on, served with a large glass of milk.
At my current school, (still in the same rural town) we have a lovely big kitchen and dining area which flows into the school library and media room. The students come and have breakfast then hang out with their friends, listen to music, or read. We serve Weet-Bix and milk, toast, a cup of milk, and fruit.
Every now and then, I mix it up by making something out of the cookbook, but the kids mainly go for the Weet-Bix and milk.
The need is the same if not more so since Covid as more and more families are finding it hard to provide for their families.