Story: Ethnic inequalities

Asalemo Usumanu and Bedilu Tesfaye enjoy breakfast with Fonterra CEO Andrew Ferrier as part of the KickStart breakfast programme in November 2009. The programme, sponsored by the dairy company Fonterra and breakfast-cereal company Sanitarium, aimed to deal with the fact that about 10% of children arrived at schools without having eaten breakfast. It targeted low-decile (poorer) schools, providing milk and cereal for students two days a week. By the end of 2010, 500 schools were expected to be participating. Māori and Pacific children are particularly likely to be affected by poverty.