Eat My Lunch is finished after social enterprise 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 seven and a half 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 is a “sad and disappointing moment for the whole team”, it’s also an opportunity to look back and reflect on the business’ successes.

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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,” she 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”.

“The buy one, give one model that we were using relies on people being in the office.

“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, there will still be 900 children who Eat My Lunch were providing lunches to that won’t be eligible for Government programmes, she said.

“Until there is food accessibility and equality, I never want to say that this is the end of Eat My Lunch, just the end of Eat My Lunch as we know it.”

The number of staff who will lose their jobs is 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 released on Thursday afternoon, 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.