Family raise nearly £6,500 to feed vulnerable school kids

Sunday 31 January 2021

A mother-daughter duo, who have raised nearly £6,500 for free school lunch vouchers for vulnerable children, are urging islanders and the Government to keep the issue in the spotlight even after the fundraiser has ended.

Audrey Laurens-Chalmers and her daughter, Mollie, initially set out to raise £5,000 for Jersey food charity Caring Cooks of Jersey to give lunch vouchers to the children who needed them most.

As Express reported last week, the pair set up the fundraiser around four weeks ago, in support of Caring Cooks' 'Flourish' scheme for secondary schools, which provides nutritional lunches to children around the island.

Since then, they have gone on to surpass that target, raising around £6,000 within the past week alone, and leading them to set a new target of £7,800 (2,000 meals) before the GoFundMe expires at the end of its 30-day cycle.

The effects of the fundraising have been immediate too - the first £5,410 received is already being put to use according to Caring Cooks - 1,352 vouchers are being printed for the charity by MailMate this week for Monday, with an aim to get 338 vouchers going out to schools on Tuesday.

Headmasters at the schools receiving the vouchers - namely Les Quennevais, Grainville, Hautlieu and Haute Vallée - will then be left to distribute the vouchers to the children who need them.

But, although Audrey and Mollie have been delighted by the “fantastic” reception, they are now urging the Jersey community and Government to take the next steps to ensure children keep get nutritious school lunches.

“Now we’ve made people aware of what’s happening, I would like somebody, ideally in the Government, to do something about it and not to just leave this and move onto something else,” she said.

Pictured: Audrey and Mollie want the awareness of schoolchildren in need of a nutritional meal to continue after their fundraiser has ended, urging both Government, local businesses and the wider community to involve themselves.

As an example of this, she noted that despite the large takings of the fundraiser, it was split between around 140 contributors, with some larger donations making up a big proportion of the total number.

Looking to what could be achieved with even more islanders involved, she remarked that “if every adult gave us £3, just think about what the total would be.”

Indeed, she recalled how shocked she was by the amount of people coming forward saying they hadn’t previously realised the issues facing children in poverty, despite Jersey being such an affluent island - findings like Statistic Jersey's 2018 report that only 25% of children were accessing their five-a-day of fruit and veg came as a massive wake-up call to many contributors.

Pictured: Audrey said it had come as a shock to many contributors who had no idea the issue was so prevalent on an "affluent" island like Jersey.

“I was amazed how many people had no idea what was happening,” she said. “There was an awful lot of people here who just didn’t know, who didn’t realise.”

She urgently emphasised the need for awareness to continue even when the fundraiser is over, urging both local individuals and businesses to get involved, donate and raise awareness: “What worries me is that these kids are going to be getting these vouchers and extra meals, and then suddenly they won’t – the money will have gone, the vouchers will have been used up – and what happens then?”

Earlier last month, the States Assembly voted to reject Deputy Rob Ward's amendment to the Government Plan to allocate £573,717 to Caring Cooks to roll out their pilot scheme of free school meals to primary schools island-wide.

25 against. 22 For. Government whip won the day. Now children will have to wait an unspecified time to get free meals in primary if at all. Shame on you @GovJersey https://t.co/WVV3HUYXbg

— Deputy Rob Ward (Reform Jersey) (@deputyrobward) December 15, 2020

Audrey illustrated despite this, she felt there was the capability for the island to continue supporting Caring Cooks and making an immediate difference, pointing out how fast action had been between setting up the fundraiser and the children getting their meals next week:

"We’ve raised this money in about four weeks, and those kids are going to be getting those meals next week; what a short timespan that is between trying to do something and something actually happening."

Discussing Audrey and Mollie’s “incredible” fundraiser, Caring Cooks CEO, Melissa Nobrega said that “it’s great that we are coming together and doing something positive, and supporting and enhancing the work of Government who have done an amazing job of getting kids back to school.”

Pictured: Caring Cooks CEO Melissa Nobrega highlighted that having a nutritional lunch was "crucial" to supporting kids back into school.

She said the fundraiser also coincides with the launch of Caring Cooks’ new campaign, ‘Pocket to Plate,’ encouraging both individuals and companies to “put their hand in their pocket and put a meal on a plate for a family or a child – it could be school lunches, could be through our weekly meal service on a Saturday.”

Like Audrey, she reasoned that “even if it’s just £4 that they give, they know it’s going to someone in need.”

Summing up the perspective she wished islanders to have, Melissa said: “We do live in an affluent island, and for some it’s hard to understand there is genuine poverty here but there is, and we need to support our future which is the children, and the young students at secondary schools.

“We need to be making sure they are healthy, are achieving their academic potential and come away from school feeling really positive and supporting their physical and mental health.”

CLICK HERE to support Audrey and Mollie's fundraiser.