Eat My Lunch: Feeding Kids in Need During COVID-19

Until the COVID-19 lockdown, we were feeding about 2,000 kids a day across 77 schools in Auckland and Wellington.

Just because the schools are closed doesn’t mean the need to feed hungry kids is going away. If anything, we know there will be a greater need. We are more committed than ever to continue our mission of feeding hungry Kiwi kids.

HOW WE WILL CONTINUE TO FEED KIDS?

While schools are closed, we will start delivering a Weekly Lunch Pack to the 2,000 kids who were previously receiving our lunches at school. Kids will receive a box delivered to their home, with enough ingredients for them to make a week's worth of healthy lunches, as well as milk provided by Fonterra (which they were also receiving through Milk in Schools). Nanogirl are also providing free science experiment worksheets to be delivered with the food. Families with multiple kids in the lunch programme will receive multiple boxes.

The weekly Lunch Pack will include:

- a loaf of wholemeal bread

- fresh vegetables (lettuce, carrots, tomatoes)

- ham and tuna

- 5 servings of fruit (apples, bananas, pears)

- snacks (biscuits, popcorn, vege chips)

- 5 servings of Anchor Milk (kindly donated by Fonterra)

- Free Nanogirl science experiment worksheet to help build superpowers at home

The food will be packed under strict hygiene protocols and delivered to homes on a “contactless” basis via Eat My Lunch’s existing distribution system of drivers.

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

For each week of the lockdown, we estimate the cost of sending weekly food packs to 2,000 kids is ~$40,000. Costs are higher than for our schools programme, driven by the the need to deliver direct to homes and the use of paid staff to pack and deliver food (instead of volunteers as we previously relied upon).

Eat My Lunch's previous model relied on corporates buying lunches to fund the free lunches for kids. With COVID-19, we have had to change our operations to home deliveries of boxes of fresh groceries (fruit, veges, bread, etc) as well as providing food to some essential services still operating. The reality is that these operations are not generating anywhere near the money necessary to fully fund the social side. Therefore we are asking for your help to make it possible for us to cover the additional costs of getting food to the kids.

Our amazing partner, Foodstuffs North Island are just as committed to ensure that kids keep getting fed during this period. That is why they have kicked this campaign off with an incredibly generous contribution of $100,000! THANK YOU FOODSTUFFS!!

OTHER INFO

The safety and health of our team and recipients means that we are minimising the use of volunteers. We want to have consistent staff that we can train properly and are committed to ensuring that they and their "bubble" are fully aware of the requirements of Eat My Lunch and to isolate within the home environment. It is also important that we minimise the movement of lots of people during the lockdown.

Eat My Lunch is a Food Service Provider registered with a Customised Food Control Plan under the MPI Food Act 2014. We have Essential Service status under the COVID-19 lockdown. We adhere to the strictest processes and procedures to ensure that we are fully compliant with all Food Safety regulations and Level 4 guidelines. Our staff receive regular training in all elements of Food Safety, Critical Control, Personal Hygiene and Health & Safety management. In addition to our stringent default processes, we have also initiated additional measures to ensure that there is minimal risk to our staff, suppliers and customers.