05 October 2022
Together creating over 50 million lifelong lessons and counting
Tags: Celebration
You simply can’t beat a classic kiwi breakfast and what’s more classic than a bowl of Anchor milk and Weet-Bix. Since 2009, Fonterra, Sanitarium and the Ministry of Social Development have been proud partners of the KickStart Breakfast programme. Recently, the programme celebrated reaching the milestone of serving more than 50 million breakfasts nationwide!
The programme is designed to positively impact child wellbeing through providing access to nutritious food at school, delivering Anchor milk and Sanitarium Weet-Bix to kickstart students’ days with healthy, nutritious breakfasts.
However, Amavi Mey, Community Engagement Manager at Fonterra, believes the programme offers much more than just a nutritious breakfast. "KickStart Breakfast can provide a space to teach tamariki and rangatahi lifelong lessons, leadership opportunities, help build positive relationships with peers and teachers. It can become the heart of the school bringing communities together."
Paula Ashcroft, principal of Northland's Maromaku School, says the breakfasts have become a hihglight for students, offering a relaxed social environment.
"We off a variety of themes for students, so no day is the same. We have music playing, students can choose between sitting around a large table together or outside- it's been great for building new relationships."
Stu Taylor, Fonterra farmer in Ashburton, is proud of the reach KickStart Breakfast has across Aotearoa with nearly 1,400 schools participating in the programme.
“It’s such a great way for our family to support the wider community around our farm. This is one of the best initiatives from Fonterra and dairy farmers of New Zealand.”
Any primary, intermediate, secondary school and most alternative education providers are eligible to join the KickStart Breakfast, which currently serves close to 180,000 breakfasts to students every school week.