twelve: eat my lunch

Who are you and what do you do in your day-to-day job?

Kylee and Priya from the HR team!

How did you use your 'Here for Good' day?

Eat My Lunch - making and delivering lunches to schools around the Wellington region.

Why did you choose them?

We really liked what they are doing! Feeding hungry kiwis is such an amazing cause and it was great to play a part in providing lunch for a little kiwi who otherwise might not have had any lunch that day.

What did you do?

We went in in the morning and helped make the lunches and organize them by school. It was such a great group of volunteers. The others that we volunteered with had been volunteering since Eat my Lunch started in Wellington three years ago with one of the volunteers helping make the lunches every morning! It was great chatting to them all as we packed up all the lunches. We then drove to six schools to deliver the lunches (with a number of other volunteers delivering to other schools across Wellington). The schools were so gracious to receive the lunches!

What did you enjoy most?

The actual making of the lunches was really fun and went by really quickly. But the delivery was the most rewarding. Neither Kylee or I had even heard of any of the school we delivered the lunches too, so it was nice to be able to see where the lunches were going and see how gracious the schools were to receive the delivery.

What did you learn from the experience?

We probably learned how much more needs to be done! Although it felt like we were making hundreds of lunches, in reality, the schools that receive the lunches (and there are a number of schools currently on the waitlist) get either 10 or 20 lunches they can distribute across the school - which would be a hard decision. Encouraging staff to either volunteer their time to help (which was lots of fun) and also using Eat My Lunch corporate catering is really important, as this allows them to provide more free lunches to schools.

How can I help?

They are always looking for volunteers and you can either make the lunches or deliver, or both! It does not take long and it is really easy to sign up on their website.