With only 3 days left of our Songkran celebrations, we have already raised enough money to help The Lunchbox Fund provide 18,328 meals to feed hungry, underprivileged school children throughout South Africa.
Since 13 April 2015 we have been running with a delicious Songkran Special where our customers who opt to sit down in any of our restaurants country wide on Mondays to Wednesdays, can order a noodle dish (ranging from 504 to 536 – chicken only, and dish 403) and receive a second noodle dish absolutely free. And for our customers who are in a hurry and can only do with a take-away, we have also given them the benefit of receiving 25% off the cheaper of the two noodle dishes.
In the Songkran spirit of giving, we have partnered with The Lunchbox Fund to help feed hungry children across the country. For every Songkran Special sold, we will donate R2.50 to The Lunchbox Fund, which is all it costs to feed a hungry child a hot meal at school.
So, who is The Lunchbox Fund?
They are a NGO that focuses on fostering education via nutrition by providing a daily meal for orphaned and vulnerable school children in townships and rural areas of South AFrica. The Lunchbox Fund provides a behavioural incentive for a child to attend school, and for their parents to keep them in school. Once they are in school – they are in place for an education and for the future that education brings.
Did you know?
56% of all children in SA live in poverty – that’s 12 million children living below the poverty line, with over 3.6 million orphans among them.
The Government currently only reaches 8 of those 12 million children through the National School Nutrition Program. This is often the child’s only meal of the day. We aim to feed the 4-million who are not reached. Children who don’t have enough to eat, don’t have the capacity to work towards a proper education. The Lunchbox Fund provides a free and healthy meal at schools, which in turn encourages the children to attend.
What’s in the Lunchbox?
The Lunchbox Fund provides a rotating menu (across a month) of nutritionally fortified foods that are delicious and familiar to the children. These can be prepared in different combinations and include: Soya mince in three flavours, soup mixes, peanut butter, milk, porridge, immunomeal, samp and sugar beans, rice and lentils, vegetable stew and three flavours of vita drink. Each meal provides a full RDA of vitamins, minerals and micro-nutrients to the child. The school is required to source locally grown vegetables from within the community, and where peanut butter is supplied, to provide wholewheat bread with which to make sandwiches. Each school receives one month’s supply of food at a time.
The food is prepared fresh each day, on-site by Food Mamas and served hot (excluding the sandwiches). The children receive their meal during their lunch break and eat together in groups – either with their teachers, or for the older children, in peer-groups.
We’re encouraging our customers to use their noodles and help us to give back this Thai New Year.
