Eat My Lunch has announced a new partnership with Foodstuffs North Island Limited. The collaboration aims to enable Eat My Lunch to feed more Kiwi kids with support from the 100% New Zealand owned supermarket chain community reach and distribution channels.
Foodstuffs North Island joins Eat My Lunch as a strategic investor to assist them with growing scale and to maximise the proven social benefits the programme provides to children in need.
Eat My Lunch, is on a mission to ensure no Kiwi kid goes to school hungry. Currently, founder Lisa King and the team deliver around 1,700 GIVE* lunches a day to 48 schools across Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton. “But this is only scratching the surface of the need. Our intel suggests there are at least 25,000 children in New Zealand going to school every day without lunch,” says King.
“Securing a partner like Foodstuffs is really exciting for us. Their ability to contribute both financially and in real terms by giving us access to their supply chain and wider community through their network of stores is invaluable and they will give us the freedom to grow.
“This collaboration will help us take a giant step towards achieving our mission goal of 25,000 free GIVE lunches a day for Kiwi kids in need. As a business we really needed a strategic partner like Foodstuffs to invest in us and help us realise our goals.
Giving kids a chance
Chris Quin, CEO for Foodstuffs North Island says the supermarket group was drawn to Eat My Lunch due to its innovative business model and the ability to make a scalable and significant impact on a growing social problem. “As a 100% New Zealand owned company which is inherently based on individual owners’ entrepreneurship, being able to invest in a business like Eat My Lunch feels right,” says Quin. “Lisa and the team are not only entrepreneurial but they are filling an important social need. Contributing to their success is an awesome opportunity and an absolute privilege. We just want to stand behind them and empower the team.
“The initiative goes right to the heart of what matters to us – it’s about giving New Zealand kids the chance to realise their potential and get more out of life. This awesome programme is practical and effective – we all know that full tummies give children more energy to learn and grow.”
The investment will be used to scale up the number of GIVE lunches, and extend the service throughout the country. Eat My Lunch retains a controlling interesting in the business.
Did you know?
Lisa King, with the help of award-winning chef Michael Meredith, started Eat My Lunch in 2015 with the aim to alleviate a nationwide issue by creating social change through something as routine as eating lunch. Eat My Lunch has already delivered more than 500,000 ‘GIVE lunch’ meals to kids in need.
* For every lunch purchased, Eat My Lunch GIVE a free lunch to a Kiwi kid in need.