Revolution Lunches volunteers fill school children's tummies

Revolution Lunches has been donating lunches to school's in Hastings since 2016. Photo/Supplied.

Long before the school bell rings, a group of Hastings-based volunteers are spending their evenings making meals for those primary-aged children who don't have a lunch.

Revolution Lunches is a community initiative of the Equippers Hastings Trust and has been operating out of Equippers Church Hastings since July 2016.

What started as an idea to fill a need in the community has flourished into something much bigger and as a result the volunteers were recently named as Gull's March "Local Heroes".

Revolution Lunches now supplies about 400 lunches to seven schools in the Hastings area and has 25 volunteers who do everything from shopping to sourcing produce, making the lunches and also delivering them.

Co-founder of Revolution Lunches Pastor Peter Brothers said the response they have received "paints a picture that there is a pretty strong need within that age and within our community".

"We understand in some small part the detrimental effect hunger has on positive learning outcomes and behaviour, let alone the physical and emotional pressure for both child and family," he said.

The lunches consist of one to two sandwiches, fruit and a morning tea snack. The volunteers aim to keep the fare healthy and low in sugar and are conscious about reducing waste as much as possible.

Pastor Brothers said after receiving the lunches, schools had noticed an increase in concentration levels and their students' ability to get through a lesson.

"The schools have been really receptive to it and the number of schools we're supporting has steadily grown over the last couple of years. There are other schools that have expressed interest that we would like to get to but it just comes down to capacity."

By the end of the year, they are hoping to supply lunches to at least 10 schools.

"We have got the capacity to store and refrigerate the lunches, we probably need a few more people on the ground to help us with the lunches and extra finances to be able to take on these additional schools."

They recently received funding from a local trust to buy an extra fridge and another local trust contributes a weekly amount towards supplies.

For those wanting to donate their time or contribute towards the cost of the lunches, email revolutionlunches@gmail.com