STILL HUNGRY: Preschoolers, too, are being sent to daycare without enough food.

I am a preschool teacher in rural mid Canterbury. Hunger in preschools is just as common as in primary schools.

We see children with lunchboxes, but many children are so hungry by morning tea they want to eat most of it and some are there until late in the afternoon.

We do have a supply of crackers, tinned fruit, etc, in the cupboards to give to those who have no food left by lunch time/afternoon tea. We also send a wee note home saying that they are finishing all their food and are so active they need some more. But really that's not a reality.

I know of a single mother of three, she works full-time but after her bills are paid she sometimes has $10 leftover for food. But she is a lucky one who knows how to cook and make amazing lunches from scratch.

I wonder sometimes if many families lack the skills to cook nutritious, budget-conscious meals or whether they know how to make them last the week by adding other things to them to stretch them out. I see lunchboxes full of packaged, bought, nutritiously-empty food, where it would be so much cheaper to make a sandwich or roll, fruit and bar.

We encourage a healthy lunchbox with our healthy heart award and talk about eating healthy choices first.

Little children with lack of food show obvious signs, usually behaviour, which can be biting, aggression, and are generally unwell.

Implementing such programmes in early childhood centres would be amazing - it would set the foundation for them in their primary years and may be a great chance to get to those families who need help. But I still think that those families that are not feeding their families breakfast, need assistance in budgeting and cooking.