Foodstuffs South Island comes to the rescue of children's lunch programme
Foodstuffs
Eleventh hour rescue of free lunch scheme for
schools.
The children who have been supported by Fill Their
Lunchbox, which recently had to close its doors, have been thrown a
lifeline by Foodstuffs South Island and Eat My Lunch. Eat My Lunch
is similar to the Christchurch social enterprise and currently
provides free lunches to thousands of needy children in low decile
schools elsewhere in New Zealand.
Eat My Lunch will fill the gap left by Fill Their Lunchbox,
using one of Foodstuffs' commercial kitchens, allowing the supply
of free lunches to continue for children who would otherwise go
without.
Foodstuffs is the South Island's largest supermarket
operator and owner of the PAK'nSAVE, New World and Four Square
supermarket brands. Chief Executive, Steve Anderson says the
partnership with Eat My Lunch provides a short-term solution, while
they implement a longer-term plan.
"Our motto at Foodstuffs is Feed the South Island, and
anything we can do to help another enterprise also committed to
doing this, deserves our support. We are pleased to be working with
Eat My Lunch to ensure low-decile 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, creating a stronger foundation and
platform which allows Canterbury businesses and individuals to buy
their own lunch, knowing another will be Given to children in need.
Once they are up and running we'll work together to find ways to
extend the programme in the South Island."
Fill Their Lunchbox announced last month that it was
financially unable to continue providing free packed lunches to
Canterbury schools. Eat My Lunch works on a similar buy one - give
one model and has given over 900,618 lunches to Kiwi kids. They are
targeting 1,000,000 by September, and this opportunity in the south
will help deliver on that objective.
Lisa King, Founder of Eat My Lunch, was over the moon when
Foodstuffs South Island put their hand up. "As far as we're
concerned, the children come first. 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. The team is as passionate as they
were about nurturing young New Zealanders and enabling them to
thrive."
Fill Their Lunchbox closes its doors on August 9, and
Anderson says he hopes that within a few weeks the team will
restart under the Eat My Lunch banner and support the many low
decile schools to whom they have been delivering
lunches.
The last word goes to Ben Atkinson, Founder of Fill Their
Lunchbox, "We're all on the same page. We want every New Zealand
child to be at their best to learn and grow. They can't do that on
empty tummies - so I'm excited that what we started will keep going
and even grow thanks to Eat My Lunch and Foodstuffs South
Island.
