News

Site visit: Eat Up Australia

There are many young Aussies who go to school each day without any lunch. And without food, concentration and learning is compromised, which often means these kids fall further behind their peers.

Eat Up runs sandwich making sessions at corporate offices, then loads up their van and delivers them to schools to provide to kids who don’t have lunch from home. Sandwiches are prepared with plain glad wrap and no branding, so teachers can distribute them to the kids in need with sensitivity.

In May, Dilla White from the VFFF Grants Committee rolled up her sleeves and got involved in a volunteer sandwich making session at Swisse offices in Botany. The music was pumping and the Swisse staff worked hard to beat their previous record, making almost 100 sandwiches in an hour, with Dilla setting a cracking pace on the Wrap Squad.

Starting in Shepparton, Victoria, Eat Up CEO Lyndon Galea started testing this simple solution after reading a local newspaper article about kids going to school hungry. “Shepparton does have a reputation for disadvantage, but kids missing out on food seemed like a level of severity that I was unaware of.”

Instead of putting down the paper and going about his day, Lyndon made 100 cheese sandwiches in his mum’s kitchen and delivered them to the kids mentioned in the story.

Now, Eat Up has made and delivered over 500,000 sandwiches across Australia, and with VFFF support will expand to 55 additional schools in NSW.