Free lunch service taps into community need

School lunches like this fed more than 30 children in the first week.

Esther Marsters knows from personal experience how hard it can be to make food stretch to provide school lunches for a whole week.

The teacher aide and trainee teacher is solo mum to three children under the age of 10 and so it was natural for her to think of the needs of kids when she began to volunteer at food rescue charity Love Soup.

“I know of kids at local schools who sometimes go without lunch, and organisations like Kids Can overlook the Coast because of the high decile ratings,” Esther says. “I want to work with our local schools and families to get our kids fed so they are able to focus on their learning. I have been in this position myself and know the struggle it can be.”

Recently she set up a new service at Love Soup, providing free school lunches.

Love Soup fully supports the programme and provided some of the food, while the community got on board, supplying more items for the lunches.

“As soon as I thought of it, there was food on the table,” Esther says. “I went home and made up some lunches and it took off. Donated food was going out as fast as it came in.”

In the first week, the lunches fed more than 30 children.

Food for the lunches can be supplied direct to families, or the lunches made up and dropped at local schools.

Esther is meeting some of the local Primary schools to discuss putting a snack bowl into classrooms so the children can help themselves to healthy food.

Love Soup director Julie King says her organisation has wanted to do something like this for some time, and all it took was Esther’s drive and commitment to make it happen.

“Things have changed and since Covid, the need has become even greater,” Julie says.

Esther eventually wants to be able to supply other school items to families, such as backpacks and stationery.

Anyone who can help, or needs help themselves, can call Esther on 021 261 8154.