Auckland – It’s been a tough time for New Zealand school children during the covid-19 pandemic lockdown, being separated from their teachers and school friends.
Many kids relied on school lunches or school tuck shops for their daily lunches and snacks but during the lockdown kids from low decile schools have missed out on their staple food supplies.
Organisations like Eat My Lunch and Kids Can have been challenged to try to get unprepared food delivered to individual kids in need throughout the wider community.
Health entrepreneur Sir Ray Avery invented the amigo bars in collaboration with school children from around the globe.
Food parcels are bulky and contain perishable goods and most families require at least two food parcels a week to survive until schools reopen.
“This is where our amigo bars come into their own. They are energy dense supplemented food bars which were actually originally designed for use in pandemic and natural disaster situations,” Sir Ray says.
The bars are easy to transport, non-perishable and can be used as a reliable source of protein, essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals for growing kids in need anywhere in the world.
A good example is Orere Point School, which is over an hour’s drive east from Auckland CBD. This week, team amigo delivered enough healthy five star rated amigo bars to keep the kids going for over a month.
As well as providing amigo bars to provincial schools, the young amigo team have fundraised to send thousands of amigo bars to a school in Ghana.
This part of their strategy to make amigo bars a global social enterprise brand, and it’s something that all our young amigos really believe in. Generation Z are a unique generation and have a very pure way of looking at the world, Avery says.
“It’s astonishing to see their intelligentsia when we have an amigo advisory board meeting. These eight to 14-year olds have knowledge beyond their years and we can learn a lot from their moral compass.
“As the end of COVID-19 lockdown is in sight the government and the business community are looking for ways to revitalise our economy to be even better than before.
“What these young amigos are saying is that all businesses should focus on making environmentally sustainable products and providing services which improve the lives of all the people in the world.”
For further information contact Make Lemonade NZ media-chief-director Kip Brook on 0275 03031885
Photo: the Amigo Advisory Board
