Eat My Lunch to launch first crowdlending campaign

09 June 2016

Eat My Lunch to launch first crowdlending campaign

Eat My Lunch will launch the first lending based crowdfunding campaign on PledgeMe on 13 June.

Eat My Lunch is a social enterprise that helps feed Kiwi kids by running a buy one give one model. For every commercial lunch that is bought, one is given to a child in need.

“Eat my Lunch has made a large impact in a short amount of time with over 180,000 lunches gifted. But, with 29% of Kiwi kids living in poverty, we have only scratched the surface. We need money to grow to do more good,” says Eat My Lunch founder Lisa King.

Eat My Lunch will raise a maximum of $1,000,000 by issuing ‘Lunch Bonds’, an innovative offer that not only provides a financial return to their crowd, but also gives more lunches to Kiwi kids. Currently operating in Auckland and Hamilton, they will spend the money raised to launch in Wellington as well as improve their underlying technology.

“We are heavily reliant on manual processes at the moment to organise ordering and logistics, we think with a more robust technical platform we’ll be able to scale and service more cities and towns,” says King.

“Wellington makes sense as the next city to expand to because it has a strong community focus. We have already received support from local businesses and the council to launch there.”

The minimum investment in the Lunch Bonds is $1,000 and lenders will be able to choose between two combinations of interest rate and giving. They will be able to choose 6% interest, plus a lunch given to a child each month per $1,000 lent; or 0% interest and two monthly lunches given per $1,000 lent.

“It’s going to be really interesting to see what happens when investors can choose between a good financial return on their investment, or to help feed more kids in need on the same campaign page,” says PledgeMe CEO Anna Guenther.

“We wanted to give investors an opportunity to not only make a difference for themselves, but also a difference for Kiwi kids in need,” says King.

Last year Eat My Lunch ran the most pledged project crowdfunding campaign ever in New Zealand. Over 2,500 pledgers helped raise almost $130,000 to set up their commercial kitchen.

“We’re hoping for a similar number of supporters again, but a larger pledge amount as the money will be repaid. We believe our community is keen to help us grow our impact, especially if they get repaid for their support. We can’t wait to see what we can achieve with the New Zealand public,” says King.

“It’s great to see a commercial approach around strengthening community, where the well being and support of children that are in need is at the centre of every decision,” says Guenther.

“We can’t wait to see the impact and scale Eat My Lunch will reach with the money they borrow from their crowd. This is how we imagined crowdlending would work for Social Enterprises.”

PledgeMe.Lend has more companies and organisations getting ready to launch campaigns to raise funds by offering loan notes to their crowd.

“We truly believe this is the future of the financial markets,” says Guenther.

“Not only being able to raise money to grow, but to grow the wealth of your local community when you pay that money back. No longer are decisions in the hands of banks and a select few. Crowdlending will democratise debt.”

Eat My Lunch’s campaign is launching Monday, 13 June, and you can find out more at pldg.me/eatmylunchbond.

ENDS

© Scoop Media