Northland Food for Life charity needs new van to deliver free school lunches

Whangārei Food for Life volunteers Mike Gillard and Tulasi Destrieux fill the van with food for schools but the charity needs a bigger van to do so. Photo / Michael Cunningham

What do you need when you provide around 2000 free school meals a week for Northland schoolkids - if you're Whangārei charity Food for Life a new van big enough to transport them would help.

Food for Life has been providing free school lunches in Northland for almost a decade and that task increased after taking up one of the Government's Ka Ora, Ka Ako / healthy school lunches programme contracts.

Food for Life manager Buddhi Wilcox said the centre now provides healthy, vegetarian lunches to three schools - Otamatea High School and Whau Valley School on Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and Whangārei Intermediate on Wednesdays.

Wilcox said that's more than 2000 meals a week and the charity's old van is no longer fit for purpose. The 17-year-old Ford van is old, not large enough to fit all the meals in and is in serious need of being upgraded.

However, he said, as a charity, it had to rely on donations and there was no way it could afford an upgraded van, which he estimates will cost up to $30,000.

''Our van's getting very old and has seen much better days. The motor's okay, but the body's falling apart,'' Wilcox said.

It also wasn't large enough to transport all the healthy, home-cooked meals and Food For LIfe had been using a van from Whangārei Food Rescue to deliver them.

But it could not rely on that help going forward as the Food Rescue people also needed it.

''They have been very supportive of us and what we are doing, but they are very busy as well and need the van.''

As well as the school lunches, Food for Life - a Hare Krishna service - also provides cheap or free meals through its centre on Water St.

''We operate on the basis of need so if someone comes for lunch and can only afford something small we will feed them. Those that can afford to pay for lunch help feed those that can't.

''Help, support and donations from local businesses, growers, organisations and the community make it possible to do what we do. Not to mention the many volunteers who help prepare and deliver meals, and those who work behind the scenes.''

Wilcox said anybody who can help the drive for a new van can find donation details on its website, foodforlifenorthland.org.nz or can contact the centre through its Facebook page facebook.com/foodforlifenorthland.

Around 90 Northland schools are in the Ka Ora, Ka Ako/Healthy School Lunches Programme includes primary, intermediate and high schools, feeding about 15,000 children.

•The Food for LIfe movement started in India in 1974, where volunteers now serve up to 2 million free plant-based meals daily to schools in India.

It is now the largest food relief in the world, eclipsing even the United Nations World Food Programme.