Reflective Essay: Exploring Entrepreneurial Gaps at Eat My Lunch

This report is a reflective essay detailing the author's experience as a volunteer at Eat My Lunch, a New Zealand-based organization focused on feeding underprivileged children. The essay discusses the author's role in food preparation, the skills gained through team interactions, and the development of a professional network. It also identifies entrepreneurial gaps, such as the need for investment and data-driven research, while proposing ideas for future social value, including a platform to connect underprivileged individuals with employment opportunities. A table outlining personal entrepreneurial means, including resources, contacts, and knowledge, is also provided. The report concludes with a list of references to support the analysis.

Running Head: Eat My Lunch
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
About
the
organization..................................................................................................................................2
My experience..............................................................................................................................2
Entrepreneurial Gaps....................................................................................................................2
Ideas for future social value:........................................................................................................3
Table – Personal Entrepreneurial Means:........................................................................................3
References:......................................................................................................................................4
Eat My Lunch
Reflective Essay

Eat My Lunch 1
Introduction:
About the organization
Eat my lunch is a New Zealand based organization working in the food industry. Their unique
concept aims to feed the poor and underprivileged. They provide a meal service where for every
meal that a customer buys, one lunch goes to a kiwi child who would have otherwise gone to
school without (YouTube, 2017). Founded by Lisa King and Michael Meredith in 2015, the
firm’s mission is that no kid in New Zealand should go to school hungry. As on today, they have
successfully provided over 5, 00000 lunches across Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington (Eat my
lunch, 2017). Recently, on the same lines, they launched eat my dinner campaign (NZHerald,
2017).
As a volunteer, I spent 5 hours every day where my duty involved making sandwiches, cutting it
into slices and packing sandwiches along with fruit and some crackers. I worked with different
people on a daily basis who were all very positive and willing to make a difference in the
society.
My experience
As a social entrepreneur I discovered various skills that would assist me and help me build my
own organization. From a young age, I have been fond of cooking. This helped me take keen
interest in preparing sandwiches and I ensured that the food we packed is scrumptious to the taste
buds.
Secondly I worked with various teams like marketing team, delivery boys, operations team and
other volunteers like me. This helped me function cordially with a team. I learnt to establish
collaboration and effective communication between different team members.
Thirdly due to interacting with so many people, I was able to increase my professional network.
Many people volunteering there are also working with well-established organizations and few
are studying in schools. Meeting so many people helped me widen my horizon regarding my
outlook on various matters.

Eat My Lunch 2
Eat my lunch is a beautiful organization to work with and consistently aims to keep its customers
happy (Facebook, 2017). I have had a lovely learning experience there and the skills that were
imparted to me in that organization are sure to stay with me for a lifetime.
Entrepreneurial Gaps
Once I started working, I realized that in spite of having skills, there is a lot of investment that
goes behind creating a social organization likes this. This requires investors who are willing to
invest in your company. I came to know that my contacts in this field are negligible and hence I
could not contribute in this regard. I fathomed that despite being a social firm, money is required
for day to day activities and since a lot of money is not available, it must be spent wisely. Eat my
lunch has managed its finances efficiently and today their investors are getting a return of 6%
(Derek Handley, 2017)
Another thing that I gathered was that such ventures require a lot of data research and mining.
We need to keep a track of how many schools are there, which are schools with highest number
of underprivileged kid, how many kids are there in every school and hence how many lunches do
we need to send. Once this information has been gathered, we also did a background check on
kids that whether they were getting and eating our lunches or not. This task was accomplished by
a different team.
Ideas for future social value:
While working with eat my lunch, I personally worked with a lot of underprivileged kids, I felt
their pain and I feel determined to bring about some changes in our society. Social
entrepreneurship is a critical subject as it comes with a very high level of responsibility (Stanford
Innovation, 2007). I wish to open a firm that provides employment to the underprivileged. I
believe everyone possess talents and currently this talent is underutilized. Cleaning maids, car
washing boys, watchmen and peons are many but this sector is highly unorganized. So much so
that it is especially difficult for immigrants because of high levels of racist unemployment in this
sector (NZHerald, 2017). This leads them to earn meagre wages. I aim to build an organization
where with the help of an online app, people can book maids, car washing facilities on a monthly
or yearly basis, they can hire watchmen and peons for their firms. The firm will take guarantee of

Eat My Lunch 3
their security by doing a background check on both the parties. This will help in two ways, firstly
households and organizations will not have to go hunting for maids and watchmen and secondly
these underprivileged employees will earn a higher pay.
Table – Personal Entrepreneurial Means:
Resources (means)
for entrepreneur
Your personal resources (means)
Who are you?
-Your traits,
characteristics,
abilities, values,
strengths
 Highly Ambitious
 Visionary
 Leadership and team building ability.
 Time management
Whom do you
know?
-People you know,
personal and
professional contacts
 Researchers who can collect data of underprivileged people of
the city.
 People who would be willing to work voluntarily
 My parents can invest some money. Will look for other
investors.
What do you know?
-Your knowledge
and education
 I know my area very well and people who are working there
 I am fluent with coding and can design a user friendly website
and application.

Eat My Lunch 4
References:
Derek Handley, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ2ccmo5t28, viewed on 5
September, 2017.
Eat My Lunch, 2017, https://www.eatmylunch.nz/, viewed on 5 September, 2017
Eat My Lunch, 2017, https://www.eatmylunch.nz/our-give-schools/, viewed on 5 September,
2017
Facebook, 2017, https://www.facebook.com/eatmylunch.nz/, viewed on 5 September, 2017.
NZHerald, 2017, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?
c_id=3&objectid=11916743, viewed on 5 September, 2017.
NZHerald, 2017, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?
c_id=3&objectid=11915916, viewed on 5 September, 2017.
Stanford Innovation, 2017,
https://ssir.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_the_case_for_definition, viewed on 5
September, 2017.
YouTube, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLz1jTKDfn0&t=48s, viewed on 5
September, 2017.