The new school lunches menu has been revealed - with Associate Education Minister David Seymour saying the new programme will cost $3 a lunch and save $130 million. Becky Erwood is the co-founder and director of FED. She writes about how hard a $3 lunch would be.

The Act leader’s scheme to cut spending on the free school lunch programme not only subtly shift costs from central government to schools, it also risks damaging the very thing that makes the programme work, writes Max Rashbrooke.

A University of Auckland researcher says she cannot blame parents for choosing to buy junk food over fruits and vegetables, but notes the negative impact poor nutrition can have on children.

For a household with two adults and two children, food prices have risen 35% between 2018 and 2023.

Treating failing eyesight and high cholesterol are two new ways to lower the risk of dementia developing, a major report suggests.

As industrialised social support structures are cut back and social problems deepen, we must deal with the causes and not just ease the symptoms.

The hearing and vision of Clevedon School students was checked last week, thanks to support from charity Painga Project.

Public health researchers are arguing against cuts to the free school lunch programme, saying there's even room to extend it to help more hungry children.

A dozen school and early childhood sector groups have united to ask Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to retain funding for the free school lunch scheme, Ka Ora Ka Ako.

As International Women's Day rolls around again, women can sit back, relax and reflect on all the amazing progress that's been made in the past year. Kidding!

The Hearing House is an Auckland-based charity which provides health and counselling services for people with cochlear implants. This year, the charity is launching a mobile hearing clinic, which will bring services closer to the communities which need them.

Are we now entering a post-kindness era? We haven’t heard much talk of kindness from the Government, except maybe for Nicola Willis’ defence of the Government taking a tough stance on welfare dependency. “It is not a kind thing to let someone linger on welfare for many years.” (Or, as Luxon said, “The free ride is over”.)

Eye health experts want more Māori to get their eyes checked regularly, as undiagnosed eye conditions are causing long-term vision loss for te iwi Māori.

"The earlier it's identified, the more we can do for it" is an optometrist's warning to New Zealand families amid a global rise in myopia, or shortsightedness, among children.

Revolutionary laws repealed, language initiatives reversed, authorities disestablished, even the climate crisis denied. As 2023 wraps, writes John Campbell, is the coalition government leading Aotearoa forward – or backward?

An Auckland charity has found 25 percent of children across three schools are suffering with eyesight problems after running hearing and vision tests.

A volunteer-run charity group focused on the wellbeing and health of students is changing the lives of south Auckland kids, one hearing and vision test at a time. Painga Project has been testing primary and intermediate-aged schoolchildren in low decile South Auckland schools for two years.

Wearing glasses for the first time or getting their hearing problems treated had been life changing for students at Edmund Hillary School - both inside and outside the classroom, according to principal Kataraina Nock.

Poor eyesight and hearing are hindering learning for one in four South Auckland primary school children tested by the Painga Project.

Under the current government, schools have ditched decile numbers, coped with a pandemic and started to get to grips with NCEA and curriculum changes.