‘Oh my Lorde’ thanks for the donation
Superstar New Zealand singer Lorde appears to have donated $20,000 to an Upper Hutt children’s charity.
On a Givealittle page for Fuel The Need, the sizeable donation was signed under Lorde’s real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor.
Fuel the Need helps get school lunches to 50 children who otherwise wouldn’t be fed, and is led by Manuel Dalton of Dalton’s Gym in Upper Hutt.
The donation came with the message: ‘‘Good on you Manuel and Fuel the Need – hope this helps a little bit. Lots of love from a former kid who is passionate about all kids having access to food at school.’’
Dalton found out the news early yesterday morning when the alarm on his phone woke him.
‘‘All sleepy eyed I looked at my notifications and saw one from Givealittle and had to do a double take at seeing $20,000,’’ he said.
‘‘I wasn’t aware who Ella Yelich-O’Connor was and when people told me it was Lorde, I said ‘gosh, oh my Lord’.’’
Dalton says each meal costs $3 and the project needs $30,000 over a school year.
‘‘We’ve got the volunteers, the professionals to deal with preparation, and we’ve got delivery sorted but we’ve been waiting for the finances to fund it.
‘‘I didn’t want to commit to the project until we had at least half the funding because the last thing I wanted to do was in a month or two stop because we’ve got no more money.’’
Fuel the Need has attracted 20 volunteers including Andrea Young from the Life Education Trust who has provided the project healthy and tasty lunch ideas.
‘‘With this funding we now hope to start in term four but this is just the start, we need continued donations to keep going year on year.’’
Green MP Marama Davidson said Dalton had faced ‘‘total rejection’’ from local businesses.
She was surprised by the lack of responses Dalton had received, too.
Davidson has a member’s bill in the parliamentary ballot, which would provide funding for food in schools, the Education (Funding for School Food and Allied Programmes) Amendment Bill.
She said the bill would let eligible schools decide themselves how to find the money it would provide for food.
‘‘Schools could apply for the funding and could use it in whatever imaginative ways they wanted to and Manuel Dalton could absolutely be a huge part of that,’’ she said.
A similar bill, Hone Harawira’s ‘‘Feed the Kids’’ bill, was voted down by Parliament last March.
Since then there had been a change in the makeup of Parliament, Davidson said.
‘‘Since Winston Peters gained an extra seat at the by-election, it’s now very possible to get this bill across the line.
‘‘Even one more vote would get it across.’’
She said she would work with all parties including National to secure their support.