Eat My Lunch venture succumbs to Covid-19

A venture aimed at providing lunches for Kiwi kids in need has become a casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic.

For the past 71⁄ years, Eat My Lunch has given one free school lunch to children for every corporate catering product purchased through its website.

But from December 16, the social enterprise will be no more.

Eat My Lunch founder Lisa King said that although the closure was a ‘‘sad and disappointing moment for the whole team’’, it was also an opportunity to look back and reflect on the business’s successes.

Since it was established in 2015, Eat My Lunch has fed more than 1.8 million school-aged children in need in Auckland and Wellington, and prompted the Government to create its own school lunch programme, Ka Ora, Ka Ako.

‘‘Not only have we fed Kiwi kids who would have otherwise gone without, but more importantly, we have been a catalyst for real change,’’ King said.

However, when Covid-19 reached Aotearoa’s shores in early 2020, King said the ‘‘buy one, give one’’ business model used by Eat My Lunch was ‘‘killed almost overnight’’.

‘‘We were really hoping that this year people would be going back into the office and revenue would bounce back, but that’s just not happened.’’

Although the Government scheme feeds more than 220,000 children a day, King said there were still 900 children who Eat My Lunch was providing lunches to who would not be eligible for Government programmes.

Sean Teddy, hautū (leader) operations and integration at the Ministry of Education, said: ‘‘We have been advised that Eat My Lunch will cease supplying lunches to schools they currently hold contracts with in the Wellington region as part of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme.

‘‘From term 1, 2023, Eat My Lunch have advised that they will be rebranding and will be working with another organisation to supply lunches to the schools in Auckland that they currently hold contracts with.

‘‘All other arrangements with the ministry relating to Ka Ora,

Ka Ako remain the same.’’

The number of staff who would lose their jobs was still being finalised, King said.

‘‘We’ve managed to find roles for most of our staff through co-ordinating with shareholders like Foodstuffs, but there will be some people who don’t fit into those categories.’’

King will now focus on her latest business venture – New Zealand’s first alcohol-free bottle shop.

In a statement yesterday, a spokesperson for Foodstuffs – a key Eat My Lunch shareholder and owner of supermarket giants New World, Pak’nSave and Four Square – said the closure of Eat My Lunch represented ‘‘an end of an era’’.

‘‘It’s been a privilege to be a part of this very special social enterprise that’s delivered millions of lunches to Kiwi kids in need.

‘‘While it’s an end of an era for Eat My Lunch Buy One Give One, we’re absolutely committed to continuing to keep our promise that every New Zealander has access to food,’’ the spokesperson said.