Tip Top Bakery News

The KidsCan Charitable Trust was founded in 2005 in a garage in Greenhithe, Auckland by Julie Helson and Carl Sunderland. An evaluation which was conducted in 80 low decile schools after hearing continuous media reports about New Zealand children going without the basics. We wanted to find out just how widespread the problem was and how it was affecting children’s ability to participate in class.

The evaluation revealed that thousands of children were turning up to school cold, wet and hungry because their parents were struggling to make ends meet. Schools reported that this was having a major impact on children’s learning ability, self esteem and health. Children who miss out on the basics get sick more often, do worse at school and when they become adults they are more likely to be unemployed and have children who will also grow up in poverty.

With all of this in mind we decided to do something about it and KidsCan was started with a generous $40,000 grant from Guardian Trust. Today KidsCan supports the education of thousands of children in 211 low decile schools throughout New Zealand, providing food, shoes, socks, fleece lined All Blacks raincoats and basic hygiene items. Our tangible programmes ensure disadvantaged children can get to and through the schools gates in a better position to learn

Since 2005 we have provided:

• 60,000 All Blacks raincoats to keep children warm and dry
• 25,000 pairs of shoes and 50,000 pairs of socks to prevent foot injury and keep little feet warm
• More than 5 million food items for hungry children
• 5,000 sunhats and 5,000 beanies
• 5000 basic hygiene items such as hand sanitizer

Find out how you can help at KidsCan