The Daily Charitable Trust trustee Jo Reha and Te Kahui Ako o Te Puke lead principal Vicki Hiini.
The Daily Charitable Trust trustee Jo Reha and Te Kahui Ako o Te Puke lead principal Vicki Hiini.
tp060221sw01.JPG The Daily Charitable Trust trustee Jo Reha and Te Kāhui Ako o Te Puke lead principal Vicki Hiini. * tp060221sp06.JPG The type of meal being provided by The Daily for local students. By STUART WHITAKER news@tepuketimes.co.nz
Providing a free lunch to every one of Te Puke's students is all about turning a disappointment into a into a glowing success.
In the May 2020 budget, the Government announced an extension of its Lunches in Schools programme, the extended programme bringing seven Te Puke Schools into the scheme - meaning free lunches would go to around 2000 Te Puke students.
The downside was that five schools missed out.
What has happened since is that The Daily Charitable Trust has won the contract to supply the Government funded lunches to six of the schools and is working to find ways to provide lunches for all students.
The trust's Jo Reha says it was to help the schools that missed out as much as to provide meals for the ones selected that motivated the trust to be part of the programme.
''Basically, at The Daily, our whole focus is around helping people who have slipped through the gaps. We probably wouldn't have looked at a Government initiative because they are for people who do fit the criteria. We usually look at the people who don't, and so miss out.''
''The reason we started to look into it was because of the schools that hadn't been selected.
''I know in an ideal world there would be enough money for everyone and [the ministry] is working, not in a broken world, but a complex situation. So for us, instead of seeing a negative, we see it as a positive where we as a community can receive the Government support for feeding children in our community and we can match that.
''The way I see it, it could be much worse - we could have no money. At least seven of the 12 schools were selected.''
The trust is now exploring a host of possible ways of making up the shortfall so the non selected schools can get free meals.
''We said we'd take on the challenge of feeding 2000 people a day in return for the possibility of turning the profit back into more food.''
The type of meal being provided by The Daily for local students.
That will be a start, but more will be needed.
''We can do our bit, but we need the community to come together and do their bit and we feel confident in our community.'' Donations have already been pledged and there is some outside-the-box thinking going on to find other ways of making up the shortfall.
''Parents who have children who are getting meals who possibly don't need that support could potentially commit to partnering with The Daily and basically sponsor a child in one of the non-selected schools.''
Another idea has come from a business that will buy meals for staff prepared in the trust's commercial kitchen and also pay for a second meal for a student.
''There are lots of ideas there, it's just a case of us all getting passionate about the one thing and unifying,''' says Jo.
Fairhaven School deputy principal Vicki Hiini is the lead principal of Te Kāhui Ako o Te Puke, the community of learning that includes all Te Puke schools.
She says that while not all schools were selected to be part of the programme, all the schools in the area have children with needs.
''We've worked so hard bringing all our schools together and bringing all our staff together. We have the same student achievement challenges across the schools and working collaboratively and so it was a bit disappointing that we have a need across our whole area and some schools were selected and some weren't.
But, she says, both The Daily Charitable Trust and Te Kāhui Ako are passionate about equity for all and they will work together to get to a situation where children in all schools will have free lunches.
She says the schools' principals are ''extremely grateful and extremely positive that the people from The Daily are following through in that they've got the energy and the capacity and the drive and the will to do this for our community''.
The Daily has secured a space where a commercial kitchen is being built and until it is has been using the canteen at Te Puke High School
''That's been the bridging point for us to make this work. As an organisation we are still pretty small in the grand scheme of things so to produce 2000 meals is a pretty big jump. The make or break has been the commitment the high school made to give us the canteen space. Without that, we couldn't have pulled it off.''
The trust hopes to have the commercial kitchen up and running this week. Meals for the high school will still be prepared on-site, with the meals for all the other schools prepared in the commercial kitchen.
