Hungry kids will continue getting their free lunch

Hungry children from low decile schools in Christchurch will still get free lunches.

Social enterprise Eat My Lunch and supermarket chain Foodstuffs will fill the void left when Christchurch business Fill Their Lunchbox this month announced it could no longer afford to provide free packed lunches to Canterbury schools.

Eat My Lunch, which provides free lunches to thousands of needy children in low decile schools throughout New Zealand, will make the lunches in a Foodstuffs commercial kitchen.

The new scheme is expected to operate in Christchurch within the next four weeks.

Like Fill Their Lunchbox, Eat My Lunch uses the ‘‘buy one, give one’’ (BOGO) model to provide free packed lunches. Consumers pay more for a product to get similar product gifted to someone in need.

Before its closure, Fill Their Lunchbox delivered about 450 lunches a week, across two days, to 12 schools.

Eat My Lunch will operate over five days. To date it has provided more than 900,618 lunches to Kiwi kids and is targeting one million by September.

Foodstuffs chief executive Steve Anderson said the partnership would provide a short-term solution while the company implements a longer-term plan.

‘‘We are pleased to be working with Eat My Lunch to ensure lowdecile schools continue to get healthy, well-prepared lunches for kids in need.

‘‘Together with Eat My Lunch we will work to build on what Fill Their Lunchbox started,’’ he said.

When the scheme was fully under way, Foodstuffs would work with Eat My Lunch to find ways to extend the programme in the South Island, Anderson said.

Foodstuffs is the South Island’s largest supermarket operator and owner. It owns New World, Pak ‘n Save and Four Square.

Eat My Lunch founder Lisa King said she was ‘‘over the moon’’ when Foodstuffs agreed to help out.

‘‘We’re excited to be able to step in and pick up on the incredible work Fill Their Lunchbox has done in the Canterbury region. As far as we’re concerned, the children come first.’’

Fill Their Lunchbox founder Ben Atkinson said he was excited that what he had started would continue to grow. ‘‘We’re all on the same page. We want every New Zealand child to be at their best to learn and grow.’’

People buying one of Eat My Lunch’s $12.95 to $18.95 lunches are not told how much of the purchase price goes to providing the donated lunch under its BOGO model.

‘‘The children come first.’’

Eat My Lunch founder Lisa King