KickStart Breakfast celebrates 15-year milestone
A community partnership between Fonterra, Sanitarium and the Ministry of Social Development today celebrated its 15-year anniversary at an Auckland school that has been part of KickStart Breakfast since the programme began.
Representatives from government, Fonterra and Sanitarium attended the event at Birdwood School in West Auckland to celebrate the programme’s achievements.
Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston joined the milestone celebration today and said KickStart Breakfast is a great example of business and community sectors working with government to deliver positive change to children and families.
“Making sure hungry children get a good breakfast is an investment in their learning. They are in a much better place to learn and achieve their potential.”
KickStart Breakfast currently serves Anchor™ milk and Sanitarium Weet-Bix™ to more than 42,000 students every school day with 66% of those at primary school age. Any public school in the country can join the programme, which is found in over 1,400 of a total of 2,500 schools nationwide.
Speaking at the event today, Fonterra’s Director of Global Sustainability, Stakeholder Affairs and Trade Simon Tucker said the Co-operative is committed to positively impacting and connecting communities throughout New Zealand.
“We’re incredibly proud to deliver good quality dairy nutrition to help fuel tamariki and rangatahi across New Zealand so they can achieve their best every school day.
“We’re grateful to play our part in supporting our communities, alongside our partners, teachers, student leaders, whānau and the 4,000 strong volunteers, who generously give their time and energy to supporting their local breakfast clubs,” says Mr Tucker.
The programme helps students start the day happier and more settled, with a greater ability to focus on learning, according to a report by the Ākina Foundation.
The report showed this led to societal benefits including better school attendance, improved behaviours, and greater educational outcomes for students, as well as less time and financial stress for whānau, with more spending available for other necessities.
Sanitarium General Manager Michael Barton said it was humbling to be able to give back to communities.
“This milestone celebration speaks of an incredible journey for Sanitarium as it is core to our purpose and commitment to promote healthy eating choices and giving communities access to wholesome food.”
Schools around the country will be holding their own KickStart Breakfast celebrations throughout this month to celebrate the 15-year milestone.
About KickStart Breakfast
KickStart Breakfast is a community partnership between Fonterra, Sanitarium and the Ministry of Social Development that provides Anchor™ milk and Sanitarium Weet-Bix™ to over 1,400 schools across New Zealand.
In 2009 Fonterra partnered with Sanitarium to offer a breakfast programme, initially covering 300 schools. The New Zealand government joined the programme in 2013 as a funding partner, enabling its expansion to all public schools and offering breakfast up to five days a week.
The KickStart Breakfast programme is available to all public New Zealand Schools, including some Alternative Educators. Kickstart Breakfast is designed to be flexible to fit the needs of individual schools and they can run the programme from once a week to every school day.
About the Ākina Foundation impact report
In 2023, the KickStart Breakfast programme commissioned the Ākina Foundation to provide an independent evaluation of the programme’s impact on students, their whānau and the wider community.
Insights in the report are based on a range of research Ākina conducted to understand and measure the impact of the KickStart Breakfast programme. These include workshops, literature reviews, interviews, school surveys, and a social cost-benefit analysis.
The KickStart Breakfast Impact Report authored by Ākina is available here.