Pictures: Maree Wilkinson
Jordan Watson didn’t grow up in poverty, but his family was sometimes strapped for cash and he knows the anxiety it causes.
Best known for his comedic How To Dad parenting videos, the 36-year-old influencer’s life in the idyllic beach town of Papamoa in the Bay of Plenty differs greatly from his rural upbringing alongside 11 siblings in a blended whānau.
“I’ve had brushes of poverty and that sticks with you,” he tells Woman’s Day. “As a kid, I didn’t want people to think that I was poor.”
The entrepreneur, content creator and all-round nice guy understands how challenging life can be, and he wants to use his platform of more than five million social media followers to do some good.
Five years ago, he became the charity ambassador for KidsCan, which provides food, jackets, shoes and health products to nearly 1100 schools and early childhood centres. However, currently 10,000 kids in 260 schools and ECEs are on its waitlist, the largest in its 19-year history.
Jordan acts as KidsCan’s ambassador for free, saying the charity resonates with him as a dad.
“The thought of sending your kids to school and them asking, ‘Where’s my lunch?’ and saying, ‘Oh, sorry, there is nothing you can have,’ that hits me in the stomach,” he explains.
Many kids hide poverty, giving peers excuses for their empty lunchboxes, he tells. “It’s sad that it’s a constant for them, whereas I’ve only had it momentarily.”
One boy at a KidsCan-supported school tried fixing his hole-filled shoes with PVA glue and sticky tape before the charity gifted him new footwear. He was so excited, he insisted on keeping the shoebox too.
Jordan’s seen the amazing positives KidsCan brings, including boosting mood and concentration in class, the joy on a child’s face when gifted a new jacket and the creation of a “bustling hangout” at free breakfast clubs where no child feels different from the others. Jordan is a fierce fighter for bridging the chasm between rich and poor.
He spent his early years in the rural village of Te Kauwhata, north of Huntly. His father Gary was an eel fisherman and meat worker, while his late mum Julie was a supermarket worker and a cleaner.
“We grew up poor to middle class,” he says, stressing that while they survived, it wasn’t a lavish life.
“Being poor is when you need to choose between buying groceries or paying rent. That’s the difference.”
His parents divorced when he was eight. He and his three siblings gained a stepdad, Tim, who had five children. Jordan’s dad remarried and he got three more stepsiblings before that relationship ended.
At 15, Jordan left Te Kauwhata to live with his mum and Tim, who had shifted to Morrinsville. When he talks about starting at Morrinsville College, he recalls, “My uniform’s on my bed and it’s from the op shop, faded with stained shorts and a woollen knit that didn’t fit. My polo was up my back, but I knew you couldn’t be a diva. Mum and my stepdad had too many kids to feed.”
He also recalls his mum writing him a $5 cheque for petrol for his car at the same age. “I didn’t have any money and nor did she,” he says. “Money wasn’t getting thrown about a lot.
“It was scraping every food leftover to make ends meet. There have been moments of having that taste of being poor throughout my life,” he says, while noting he always had a loving home.
Everyone has times when they struggle, but it’s the families at the bottom of the rung – often those KidsCan help – that are most affected. He says an unexpected $100 bill can be life-altering.
When he refused dinner as a child, his mother would say, “Don’t complain – kids in Africa have nothing.”
He’s turned that around to tell his children, Mila, 11, Alba, nine, and Nala, six, “There are kids down the street, at your school, who, if I knocked on the door, would happily take this meal, eat it and not complain.” He adds, “It sits with them. My kids are very aware as a result.”
Earlier this year, Jordan helped raise $475,000 from the 24-hour handball-athon KidsCan Ball, which was his idea. Another round will be held in 2025, where he’s hoping to crack $1 million in donations.
As a KidsCan ambassador, he says he’s felt stricken, inspired and outraged. An Instagram video he filmed on Papamoa Beach to raise awareness of poverty went viral. In it, he shared stories of kids feeling hungry and embarrassed.
“I want to scream it to everyone,” he tells. “That’s my heart. That’s what builds up in my head. I get so angry that many New Zealanders are still unaware or don’t want to know.
“Just behind you, there’ll be a struggling household. No matter what the parents’ predicament is or how they got there, it’s never, ever the kids’ fault.”
For more info and to donate, visit kidscan.org.nz.
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