Every child has the right to adequate nutrition under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In New Zealand, an estimated 100,000 New Zealand children go to school every day without breakfast. Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognises 'the fundamental right for everyone to be free from hunger’.
In the Auckland region, there are approximately 43,000 children in decile 1 and 2 state schools. Of these 57% are Pasifika, 30% are Māori, and 4% are European. The remaining 9% are Asian/Middle Eastern and other ethnic groups. The Ministry of Health advised the Minister in 2006 that "decile one and two schools draw their students from our most vulnerable communities and cope with multiple issues related to poverty".
A 2002 Ministry of Health survey found that there is a high percentage of children between the age of 5 to 14 who "sometimes or always ate nothing before school", compared to a New Zealand Health Survey that found around 15% of children leave for school without eating breakfast. The Office of the Children's Commissioner released a Framework for Food in Schools Programme stating "Children need to be fed adequately for a range of nutritional, educational and social reasons and should be fed regardless of their parent's income or status. To end this, breakfast should be made available to decile 1 and 2 primary, intermediate and primary intermediate combined schools."
Background
The evolution of children's right itself to adequate nutrition has fast been on the rise in the last 10 years. In 2004, 26% of children were reported as living in serious or significant hardship. In 2005, the Child Poverty Action Group published Hard to Swallow, which sounded alarms about the increasing number of families who resorted to using food banks. Key recommendations of the 2005 report that free but good quality breakfasts should be provided for children in decile 1 and 2 primary and intermediate schools as a means of ensuring that the most vulnerable children were sufficiently nourished to enable them to learn efficiently at school.
Past Governments have ignored the problem or helped construct the public debate of the issue portrayed as one of parental failure. Poor quality diet has also been portrayed as a matter of personal preference. The Labour Government of 2000–2008 responded to the poor diet with social marketing campaigns such as Push-Play, aiming to encourage families to eat healthier foods to improve people's health and fitness. In the early 2000s, the Treasury found poor child nutrition is a risk factor for the child's ability to learn. The National Government of 2008–2017 avoided the debate about food insecurity, instead claiming "poor food choices", and removed Labour's public health initiates around healthy eating and exercise in 2008.
Nationally, there are 115,000 children in decile 1 and 2 primary and intermediate, and secondary schools with private charities, schools and teachers scrambling to fill the nutrition gaps of many of these students.
New Zealand policymakers aim to create equality of opportunity for children as part of a broader social investment strategy. Providing breakfast, free, to all children attending decile 1 and 2 primary and intermediate schools would be one positive way to achieve this stated policy aim. It would also help redress the balance in favour of the low-income households that have found themselves left further behind as New Zealand's income inequality has grown over the last thirty years.
International obligations
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child furthers a stand to which the child has a sufficient right to adequate nutrition. Relevant provisions are set out in Article 27.
States Parties recognise the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.
The parent(s) or others responsible for the child have the primary responsibility to secure, within their abilities and financial capacities, the conditions of living necessary for the child's development. States Parties, in accordance with national conditions and within their means, shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in the case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing.
School food programmes would also be consistent with the conclusion of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in New Zealand. The committee's recommendation in paragraph 43: