More Than Just Breakfast
KickStart Breakfast feeds over 42,000 tamariki daily across Aotearoa. Students may struggle to learn and concentrate in the classroom on an empty tummy. Participating schools say KickStart Breakfast not only helps children nutritionally, but also makes a positive impact on learning behaviours and provides children and young people a place of belonging.
Social Wellbeing
KickStart Breakfast is so much more than tamariki having breakfast. It is a place for students to feel connected and nurtured. A positive and warm environment where tamariki can engage with peers and teachers before a day of learning.
Every year, KickStart Breakfast asks schools to share the impact the programme has on their tamariki. In 2021, over 1,100 Schools reported the following positive impacts the programme provides:
Improvement in general health & wellbeing (75.6%)
Improvement in-class concentration levels (74.8%)
Improvement in children’s behaviour (60.5%)
Building positive relationships with peers and teachers (51.4%)
*2021 Term four KickStart Breakfast survey. Responses gathered from 1,100 schools involved in the programme.
The programme allows flexibility to work best for your students and their needs. Setting up the programme correctly can see attendance levels improve, increase student welfare, and fuel tamariki to help them learn and grow as individuals.
"Children who used to come to school unhappy and hungry, now turn up all smiles at breakfast club because they know they can eat their fill with no judgment". Norsewood & Districts School
KickStarting Leadership Opportunities
KickStart Breakfast encourages students to get involved in helping run their school breakfast club. Involving students does not require extra effort and allows opportunities for students to build positive relationships, self-esteem and life skills. Many of our breakfast clubs have students involved with some of the following responsibilities:
- Set up or pack down
- Preparing the food
- Serving breakfast
- Assisting with dishes and washing up
- Creating rosters
- Leading the full process from start to finish
Having students help with your breakfast club can encourage more students to attend, creating a wider reach of the programme. Being a KickStart Breakfast leader can create additional leadership roles within your school and provide lifelong skills.
Her attitude is positive and constructive. We have a (tongue in cheek) quote at breakfast club - everyone wants to save the world, but no-one wants to do the dishes, Savannah is always the first to do the dishes and the last to leave. She avoids the limelight and never asks credit for the work she does. If every school had twenty Savannah's, every child could depend on a breakfast served with Aroha.
Savannah, Year 12, Buller High School, Westport. Student Champion Runner Up 2019
Tevita started helping not long after we launched our breakfast club. ‘He is a wonderful to help to Sally and Kui (our volunteers). He turns up at 7.30am and, without needing any word, starts setting up tables and getting the food ready... He quietly does the job… Tevita recognises the need and addresses it without needing any instruction or input. He is a visible leader’.
Tevita, year 10 student at Gisborne Boys’ High School. Winner of Student Champion 2018
KickStarting Community Connections
Many people often wonder how they can give back to their community and volunteering at their school’s local breakfast club has proven to be a great way of connecting individuals together.
Volunteering and supporting a KickStart Breakfast club is so much more than being there to help serve breakfast. It is an opportunity to connect and improve the quality of life for our tamariki across Aotearoa.
Some of the following local groups assist at many KickStart Breakfast clubs across the country:
- Local church groups
- Lion foundation
- Rotary
- Red Cross
- Salvation Army
