#52 Toms Shoes inspired me to start a business helping disadvantaged children, Lisa King founder of Eat My Lunch

Lisa King joined Purposely Podcast to share her founder story with Eat My Lunch Lisa and her business partner Michael Meredith’s mission started in 2015 with a plan to ensure that no New Zealand school child goes hungry and  this continues to be their mission today. They have just celebrated their 6th birthday and they are proud to have given away over 1.6 million lunches to Kiwi kids in need. Sadly there is still a waiting list with many schools in Auckland and Wellington needing their help. Lisa was inspired by a news article she read outlining the damaging effects of food poverty on children in New Zealand at the same time she reflected on a pair of Toms Shoes she was wearing, where she had bought a pair of Tom’s shoes and she had gifted pair of shoes at the same time. Eat My Lunch was born using the same, buy one gift one model. You will hear how an urgent start-up phase orchestrated from Lisa’s home kitchen was soon followed by a quickly scaled team and operation including a commercial kitchen and urgency to deliver on the need that was evident across New Zealand. In this episode she talks about her previous career as a corporate marketeer and brand expert and how she used this experience and the commercial skills she had gained to start, scale and grow Eat My Lunch. The episode also explores her early years, having been born in Hong Kong her parents moved Lisa and her siblings to New Zealand to start a new life. A new life built on some traditional values and views as well as some exceptional hard work where her family invested their energy into running a successful Chinese restaurant. Lisa expands on growing up on New Zealand as an Asian migrant and how her Hong Kong background and New Zealand experience has shaped who she is today. www.eatmylunch.co.nz