Children going to school unfed or without a packed lunch. Much hand-wringing. Rapidly growing need for charities to meet.
Nationwide, almost 20,000 children a week need feeding during their school day because of empty cupboards at home.
Next up kids are getting too much food to eat.
An Auckland primary school is banning birthday cake as it prepares for new national healthy eating guidelines.
Schools throughout the country are already purging high-fat and high-sugar items from tuckshops.
Oteha Valley principal Megan Bowden said some classes had four cakes turning up in a week, a rate many families would consider to be unhealthy.
This doesn't represent the material extremes in society. It represents the extremes in parental attitudes.
While some don't really give a rat's arse, spending every last cent on their own indulgences, others are busy catering to their children's every demanded indulgence.
This is modern life. Too much neglect and too much spoiling. And I have to admit that I am too often guilty of the latter.
The left would insist these contrasting stories confirm the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. It is actually about the widening gap between attitudes. And that is why redistributing income doesn't make a difference. Perhaps we need to be redistributing values.
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6 comments:
I agree.
Would it be too "non-PC" to point-out that its often the "have nots" that are the ones queuing at McDonalds & KfC for lunch and dinner?
Here is my morality tale of the week. I have a tenant with four young kids at home. She is a beneficiary. Three of her kids are school age. I know her financial situation because she got behind in her rent and I have been trying to get her caught up and not have to evict her.
She spends over $250 per week on groceries. I told her that we spend (a teenage boy, a 10 yo girl and two adults) about $150 per week. Sometimes more, sometimes a bit less, depending what is in the garden.
She buys nothign but packaged or tinned foods. These things are expensive. Nearly twice the cost of making meals from scratch. In her case it is poor buying choices. She shops in the same supermarket that I do. She also receives nearly $700 per week in benefits.
And the Left thinks that giving her more will make things better for her kids? That is delusional thinking.
Brian Smaller
Good gracious - do you eat baked beans?
I have 4 vege gardens on my property - and a glasshouse - and still spend $400 per week on food for 3 teenagers and 2 adults.I buy steak and so forth, oven chips, daity products, fish.
I agree with Lindsay's comment " Too much neglect and too much spoiling. And I have to admit that I am too often guilty of the latter."
But come on - if you want a good diet - especially including fish - you have to spend way more than $150 per week for a family.
$150 a week would be right for us and we eat well- two adults and two boys who eat just as much if not more than an adult!
We buy in bulk and wholesale, staying away from pre-prepared meals. Retail is for mugs!
Fruit & vegetables are dirt cheap locally, especially when you buy the seasonal ones.
You've nailed it Lindsay - life is a balance, and few are even trying to achieve that balance.
Fact is, even for those who are considered fairly well off, we all have to be responsible (heck, careful!) with our money or we're no better off than someone with half the money coming in.
Ruth - Last weeks dinner menu went something like this:
We had salmon steaks served with mashed potato and bed of spinach. Pan fried fish (terakihi from local fish supplier) with salad. Spinach and ricotta canneloni. Grilled pork chops with kumara, salad and mushrooms. A roast chicken with potatoes and brocolli. Pork fried rice with whatever left over veges I had. A penne pasta meal with tomatoes, garlic and some mince.
I make lunches for wife and me, and the kids. Salads for us (better than you get at Wishbone as well), the kids usually get fruit, a scone or muffin, some sort of sarnie (lettuce, some meat, cheese, tomatoes etc).
Breakfasts are cereal or toast except on Sundays when we always have eggs, bacon and perhaps mushrooms on toast.
Always have OJ or milk on hand and pretty potable water comes out of our taps. Kids want snacks there is bread, jam, marmite, fruit.
I am no food nazi. We splurged last night and had kebabs from Palm Kebabs in High St Lower Hutt. Pizza or Fish n Chips usually once every couple of weeks. The largtest shop I have done in this year was about $250. We were having friends over and it was our turn to provide dinner for the families.
I just don't buy pre-made stuff from the supermarket if I can avoid it. Tinned tomatoes and a can of spag are exceptions and buy biscuits perhaps once or twice a month. I suppose it helps that I get an enormous amount of pleasure from preparing nice meals for my family and knowing that I can do it cheaply. Wife is the gardener - I hate dirt - and always has something for me to cook. I doubt our total garden area would be more than 20m2. She grows veges amongst flowers. Makes picking tomatoes a bastard when you have to fight yoru way past a rose bush to get them.
Brian Smaller
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