Production manager Nina Vergnes, trustee and Western Bay District councillor Richard Crawford, trustee and general manager Chrissi Robinson, and Downer staff member Tania McCluskey, with the $3000 cheque.
Production manager Nina Vergnes, trustee and Western Bay District councillor Richard Crawford, trustee and general manager Chrissi Robinson, and Downer staff member Tania McCluskey, with the $3000 cheque.
A Te Puke charity feeding thousands of school children is feeling the pinch of rising food prices, with a shortfall of funding amounting to 1000 school lunches every week.
However, staff at The Daily Charitable Trust say they are “absolutely thrilled” to have been given $3000 by Downer, to go towards covering some of the shortfall.
The Downer employee and Te Puke local Tania McCluskey who organised the donation is hoping other companies can come to the party to support the amazing things the charity is achieving.
The trust, which also runs The Daily Cafe, known in Te Puke for its “pay it forward” coffees and community pizza nights, was presented with the cheque recently.
Tania nominated the charity for the money as part of Downer Donate – an initiative in which Downer employees can nominate a charity or community group of their choice to receive funding.
The charity was chosen out of dozens nominated by staff nationwide because its values aligned with those of Downer – specifically the values of manaaki (care and respect) and whānau (family and relationships).
“As a mother of four children who go to all go to school in Te Puke, I see the value and benefit of these meals,” Tania says.
“The Daily is such a pillar in the local community and offers extra meals to others such as the elderly, unwell, those with difficult personal circumstances and people in need, no matter what the situation. They are always trying to provide for the community.”
Trust general manager Chrissi Robinson says the donation is “significant”.
The charity receives some funding as part of the Government’s Healthy School Lunches programme, but the need is greater – especially amid a cost-of-living crisis that has put food prices higher than ever, she says.
“We are talking large quantities of food. Overall, we go through 600kg of fruit a week and 290 loaves of bread every day. We try to do three hot meals every week and we use 180kg of mince for the nachos meal alone,” Chrissi says.
Staff in The Daily Charitable Trust’s commercial kitchen in Te Puke, where thousands of school lunches are made every week.
“Four local schools do not receive any government support to feed students, and we provide 200 students in these schools with a school lunch every day. Things are so hard and people are struggling.
“With 200 school days each year, that’s 40,000 meals we are needing to fund each year. We can absorb a lot of operational costs as we provide the government-funded lunches, but the extra cost of these unfunded lunches adds up to $160,000 a year.”
The charity has been operating for nine years, but since Covid has helped families that had never needed help before. In addition to the school lunches programme, the charity has been making up to 600 frozen meals every month for families in need, with the help of volunteers who come in to help.
“These families were keeping their head above water before Covid, but went under during Covid. They didn’t know how to get support because they’ve never had to before.
“[The Daily cafe] is an easy entry point for support. We can provide them with a family meal to take away, and if that need continues, we can connect them with wrap-around support through organisations such as Poutiri Trust and The Hub Te Puke.”
Since the lunches in schools began, schools had reported better focus and behaviour in students, as well as increased performance in sports. They had also reported higher attendance rates.
Chrissi says the trust’s next goal is to find a larger premises to expand operations. The team eventually want to build gardens to teach the community about gardening, to empower them to take control of the food they eat by growing it, rather than having prices dictated to them by stores.
