Free lunch scheme f ills gap
A new free lunch scheme to feed children from struggling families has launched in Christchurch, filling the gap left by the closure of Fill Their Lunchbox.
Eat My Lunch, a nationwide social enterprise that uses a ‘‘buy one, give one’’ model, joined forces with supermarket chain Foodstuffs after Christchurch initiative Fill Their Lunchbox closed in August.
More than 270 school children from 9 low-decile schools received free lunches yesterday.
Eat My Lunch Christchurch operations manager Ben Atkinson began work at 4.30am at a Foodstuffs commercial kitchen before his colleagues arrived at 7am.
Atkinson started the Fill Their Lunchbox initiative, which ran for three-and-a-half years, before closing because of ‘‘financial pressures’’.
‘‘It was a failure of the lack of business side on my part,’’ Atkinson said.
‘‘It’s a natural thing, we announced the closedown and less than a month later, we were approached by them [Eat My Lunch].’’
Before its closure, Fill Their Lunchbox delivered about 450 lunches a week, across 2 days, to 12 schools.
Eat My Lunch, which operated in Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton, before expanding to Christchurch, will operate over 5 days. Eat My Lunch chief executive Lisa King said she saw an opportunity to help children in Christchurch following the closure of Fill Their Lunchbox.
‘‘We hadn’t planned to start in Christchurch for 12-18 months, but when Fill Their Lunchbox closed operations, we didn’t want the kids to miss out,’’ King said. Yesterday, the Eat My Lunch team was joined by Foodstuffs South Island chief executive Steve Anderson, and Christchurch city councillor Anne Galloway.
The day’s menu was packed with simple but popular food – a ham-andcheese sandwich in wholemeal bread, a piece of fruit and a pretzel.
King and chef Michael Meredith delivered 80 lunches to Haeata Community Campus in Aranui at lunchtime. Haeata director of learning Iriha¯peti Mahuika said being able to offer lunch to kids in need was a ‘‘huge’’ help. ‘‘There’s a real mixture of whanau here, some that provide amazing lunches, but for many different reasons some of our whanau aren’t able to do that, so it means [children] are able to engage with their learning – their bodies and minds are able to be fuelled.’’
Other Christchurch schools receiving Eat My Lunch meals were Aranui Kidsfirst Kindergarten, Linwood Avenue School, Opawa School, Te Waka Unua School, Bamford School, Rowley Avenue School, Riccarton Primary School and Sockburn School.
‘‘For many different reasons some of our whanau aren’t able to [provide school lunches].’’
Haeata director of learning Iriha¯ peti Mahuika