To Australians, there is nothing more illustrious than the high school cafeteria. It has been painted as the peak of hierarchy in teen films. A meeting place where the cacophony of loud chatter dives off the plain tray that awaits its own splendid treat. Whilst some states in Australia have a canteen where students can line up to buy their lunch and morning recess, nothing can quite beat both the atmosphere and the knowledge that one will not grow hungry. As you have probably guessed by now, Melbourne, Australia is the next stop in our #RANoHungryChild worldwide tour to diminish childhood hunger.
Courtesy of Natalie Fisher.
Stimulation in Education
Random Acts Public Relations Officer Natalie Fisher combined forces with Eat Up Australia. As the name would suggest, the non-profit organization facilitates the making and distribution of sandwiches to over 500 schools. With over 250,000 sandwiches distributed since their inception in 2013, these meals are provided to those who fall within the 17.3% of children facing poverty in Australia. Unfortunately, this statistic keeps growing steadily as the employment rate drops. Through Eat Up’s act of kindness, these students are no longer facing food insecurity and their brains are still churning. Concentration can only happen when a student is well-fed; otherwise, their futures are compromised. This notion can continue the cycle of unemployment.
Home Economics
Eat Up’s sandwiches are created through volunteering sessions that see companies, schools, or the public pitch in and help construct close to 5,000 sandwiches per hour. On “quite an impressive occasion” as described by Natalie, Lyndon and his staff over in Sydney invited her to help facilitate a corporate volunteer event where the staff makes the sandwiches as a team-building exercise. With the supplies needed being donations from companies, such as Wonder White who provided the bread for free, the assembly line of 80 volunteers was able to make 2,300 sandwiches in less than 2 hours. Appointed as an Eat Up staffer, Natalie’s job was to resupply the volunteers with items and run around opening packets of cheese and fixing twisted rolls of cling-wraps — all while set to a high energy soundtrack. This is not the only point of coolness the organization possesses as they hold eight colorful vans, each having their own name with Malcolm currently at the helm, to deliver the sandwiches to schools.
Courtesy of Natalie Fisher.
Lunch Supply
Along with Natalie attending the volunteering session, with the donations fundraised from Endure4Kindness (E4K), a monetary donation was given to Eat Up Australia. The donation helped assist with the distribution of lunches for a whole year. Thank you to our supporters’ generosity. With your help, we are able to make a dent in food insecurity in affected areas all over the world.
If you are feeling inspired by this act, please check out Eat Up Australia’s website to make a donation directly or if you are an Australian, to become a volunteer. As always, if you have any ideas on how we can spread even more kindness into the community, let us know by contacting your Random Acts regional representative.