New World customers help raise $150,000 for Starship through Little Garden
New World
New World's Little Garden campaign ended on October 15 and
Foodstuffs NZ's Brand & Sponsorship Manager Jen Mariu says it
was a great success.
"We're very pleased to say that customers who chose to
donate $1 in return for the Little Garden Starflower (Borage)
seedling have helped us to raise $150,000 for the Starship
Foundation. This funding will make a real difference to families
from across the country who use the services provided by New
Zealand's national children's hospital.
"Last year we raised more than $50,000 for Starship through
Little Garden so we're excited to have tripled our donation this
year."
New World is a five-star partner of the Starship
Foundation. One of the projects that New World supports through
this sponsorship is Starship's National Feeding
Clinic.
It was launched as a pilot programme in May 2016 and is
now in its second year. It helps children who have severe
allergies, food aversions or medical complications that affect
their ability to eat to learn to love food.
The Feeding Clinic brings together an expert team of
psychologists, nutritionists, and speech and language therapists
who work together to assess children with feeding
difficulties.
In 2015, New World helped fund the Tube Weaning pilot
programme at Starship, which was designed to help children who had
been tube-fed to learn to eat and enjoy food on their own. Some of
these children are now benefitting from the Feeding Clinic
programme.
Occasionally, children develop a severe aversion to eating
solid food, despite never having been tube-fed.
One such child is 3 year-old Luca, who has lived on a
supplement for most of his life.
"He didn't start on solid food at six months as he should
have," his mother Annie says. "I knew something was wrong and did
my own research - that was how I found the team at the Starship
Feeding Clinic."
Luca was diagnosed with ARFID - Avoidant/Restrictive Food
Intake Disorder.
"Sometimes ARFID can come about because of a trauma - for
example if a child has been tube fed. In Luca's case, it could be
because he had tonsillitis twice in his first six months, and was
given oral antibiotics. For a sensitive child, it was very
traumatic. He had a lot of pain in swallowing, and I think he has
related that to food and this coupled with a sensory processing
disorder, it all spiralled from there," Annie
says.
"I thought there were only two or three other children in
New Zealand with ARFID, but I started a Facebook group for parents
and there are more than 100 members now.
"The programme at Starship is so amazing. There are so few
places that are doing this, or understand what ARFID is. The people
that run the programme are so understanding and so kind. It really
affirmed that we'd done the right thing," Annie
says.
"After our third session at the clinic Luca's fear and
anxiety reduced and he began to react more positively when
presented with food" ."
Luca has a long way to go yet, but his parents are
confident he's on the right track.
"The next step is, we go home and put the skills we've
learned in therapy into practice. We'll be back to do another
fairly intensive week here, in a couple of months'
time."
Brad Clark, Starship Foundation Chief Executive thanked
New World and its customers for their generous contribution to
Starship: "We love the way this campaign engages and inspires
children and we are truly grateful for the financial contribution
that enables us to continue providing this important Starship
service for young patients like Luca and so many families across
New Zealand" he said.
