Aotearoa, land of the long wide bare cupboard
Background
In 2019/20 CPAG ran a campaign highlighting the challenges faced by children living in food-insecure households. Food insecurity occurs when people do not have consistent access to enough, appropriate food and has a myriad of negative consequences.
In 2020 the Auckland City Mission estimated that at least 500,000 people experienced food insecurity on a regular basis in Aotearoa New Zealand - around 10% of the country’s population. In 2021, the Child Poverty Related Indicators report found that one in every five children lived in households without access to enough appropriate food.
When the campaign launched, CPAG’s Executive Officer Georgie Craw said “Imagine a future where all children have access to healthy and nourishing food. Imagine all politicians being committed to ending unnecessary hunger in New Zealand. Currently, although families are trying their best, many are so under-resourced they can’t provide their kids with the food they need. Parents - particularly mothers - often skip meals to make sure their children get enough. They need more support than they are currently getting.”
On this page, you can read papers written by academics and community leaders, and view the press coverage CPAG received.
Papers
Part 1: Fat, famished or starved in a land of plenty? (PDF), by Professor Elaine Rush
In this paper, Professor Rush explains what food poverty is, how many children are affected, and some of the negative consequences. Professor Rush puts forth some potential solutions and proposes a national strategy to address access and supply.
Part 2: Living with hunger: How families manage when things are tight (PDF), by Dr Rebekah Graham
In this paper Dr Graham details some of the realities and responses to hunger faced by everyday New Zealanders doing their best to get by on insufficient incomes. It includes quotes from interviews conducted with people experiencing food insecurity in Hamilton and greater Waikato region.
Part 3: Children’s experience of food insecurity in New Zealand (PDF), by Dr Sarah Gerritsen
In this paper Dr Gerristen uses research conducted by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner to describe what it is like for children in New Zealand who grow up in food-insecure households.
Part 4: Food insecurity and Māori: research, rhetoric, racism and rights (PDF), by Christina McKerchar
In this paper Christina McKerchar focuses on the high rates of Māori food insecurity and argues that several different strategies must be implemented to address the impact of food insecurity for Māori children.
Part 5: Food Insecurity among Young People in New Zealand (PDF) by Associate Professor Jennifer Utter
In this paper Associate Professor Utter focuses on how food insecurity affects the health and wellbeing of young people in New Zealand and shows how having easy access to an adequate supply of nutritious foods is critical to the healthy development of our children and adolescents.
Part 6: An outbreak of hunger: the spread of food insecurity in a time of Covid-19 (PDF), by Caitlin Neuwelt-Kearns
In this paper Caitlin Neuwelt-Kearns focuses on the challenges that New Zealanders faced – and continue to face – to provide enough, appropriate food to feed themselves and their families because of the Covid-19 crisis.
Part 7: We can build the Zero Hunger Generation in our new COVID-19 World (PDF), by Becky Little and Laurie Wharemate-Keung
In this paper the authors discuss the implementation of the Free and Healthy School Lunch Program. They argue that it must be implemented in the right way to crate the foundation for the Zero Hunger Generation.
Selected media coverage
11 November 2019, The Big Q (Auckland University), How bad is food poverty in New Zealand?
17 November 2019, NZ Herald, Niki Bezzant: We owe our kids better nutrition
19 June 2020, 95bFM, Food Insecurity with Elaine Rush
20 September 2020, Newshub, New Zealand’s children neglected by system by going to pre-school hungry – education neuroscientist