Eat My Lunch back-pedals on hunger claims
Social enterprise Eat My Lunch has dramatically cut its claims of the number of children who go to school without lunch every day.
Eat My Lunch is a privately owned business that sells luxury lunches, with prices beginning at $12.95, to people on the promise that for each lunch sold, Eat My Lunch will deliver a lunch to a needy child in school.
But following a Stuff investigation into social enterprises, Eat My Lunch has dropped its claim that 290,000 children went to school every day without lunch.
The claim appeared to overstate the number of hungry kids by about 240,000, but the company is blaming that on a ‘‘typo’’.
On Friday Eat My Lunch’s website claimed: ‘‘1 in 4 Kiwi kids (approx. 290,000) live in poverty and go to school without lunch every day.’’
By Monday, after Stuff revealed the true number was far lower, Eat My Lunch altered its claim to: ‘‘1 in 4 Kiwi kids (approx. 290,000) live in poverty and thousands go to school without lunch every day.’’
Eat My Lunch found Lisa King responded through a joint written statement with Foodstuffs North Island’s chief executive, Chris Quin: ‘‘Eat My Lunch has just corrected a typo on our website which makes it clear what we are targeting. Unfortunately the word ‘thousands’ was missing.’’
Official figures show there were 290,000 children in households in income poverty, living on less than 60 per cent of the median income.
But a spokesperson for Children’s Commissioner Chris Nichol said that of those 290,000 children experiencing a tough upbringing, about 134,000 were suffering from ‘‘material hardship’’, where they missed out on things every person should have.
The list includes: a meal with meat, fish or chicken at least every second day; two pairs of shoes in good repair; and suitable clothes for important, or special, occasions.
An unknown portion of those children in material hardship go to school one or more times a week without lunch.
Julie Chapman from KidsCan estimates the number that go without lunch one or more times a week is about 55,000.
Food availability in poorer households was variable, she said, with parents doing their best but running out of food at points during the week.
In lower-decile schools where KidsCan works, on average 22 per cent of children need lunches during a week.
King and Quin rebuffed calls for Eat My Lunch to be transparent like charities, which are required by law to publish financial details showing how much money goes towards the cause they are seeking to help.
Their joint statement said: ‘‘Rest assured the CEO’s salary is significantly below other private enterprises and in most cases, the executive salaries of various charitable organisations.’’
In addition, Quin said: ‘‘Instead of applauding the fact that Eat My Lunch has built a successful business and had a great impact on thousands of kids, it feels there are people who want to pull the team down.
‘‘This type of attitude will only serve to discourage others from setting up social businesses that not only stack up with investors but do good along the way.’’
AUT University Professor Marjo Lips-Wiersma, an ethics and sustainability leadership expert, believes any business calling itself a social enterprise should tell consumers some key information to justify their claim, including publishing financial accounts, and revealing salaries and other expenditure.
Social enterprise is on the rise here, but New Zealand increasingly appears to be out of step with countries such as Britain and the United States when it comes to the transparency required of social enterprises.
Social enterprise legal specialist Steven Moe believes it’s time to create a transparent legal entity that is neither a charity nor a limited liability company.