An Auckland school principal says up to half of the children at his school arrive hungry, and child poverty is being swept under the carpet.

Photo: RNZ

Kingsford Primary School principal Chris Williams told Checkpoint with John Campbell that sometimes as many as half of his 300 students arrive at school without lunch every day.

Mr Williams said this was a direct result of families running out of money.

The school is supported by Fonterra to feed the children breakfast and they are on the waiting list for lunch programmes.

Mr Williams said children who go without lunch find it more difficult to focus and learn, and empty stomachs make teaching harder.

Watch Zac Fleming's full video report here:

Child poverty has now become a central issues in this election, and both National and Labour setting significant targets for reducing it.

Five years ago the Campbell Live current affairs programme conducted an experiment where they compared lunches from students from a decile one and decile 10 school.

What it found was striking.

Five years on, what's changed?