The thriving Napier business that’s served 3.3 million lunches to Kiwi kids

Pictured above: Arthur Miller school girls with Lunchonline sushi. Photo: Kirsten Simcox.

What started as a Napier bakery’s idea has grown into Lunchonline, delivering millions of school lunches nationwide while supporting local food providers.

Fifteen years ago, when ordering anything online was still a novelty, a small team in Hawke’s Bay built a service that would change the way New Zealand parents fed their tamariki.

Today, Lunchonline has clocked up more than 3.3 million lunches delivered to children across the country, while providing vital extra income for hundreds of small, local food providers – and is proudly marking its 15^th birthday.

Launched in 2010 by Jason Heaven, Sharon Chapman, Julie Gillies and the late David Chapman, Lunchonline provided a solution for busy parents – and an income stream for regional food providers like bakeries and sandwich shops.

“It was all about giving parents the ability to order and pay for a variety of food items online,” says Jason.

“Have them delivered to school, and at the same time taking the pressure off schools when it came to handling cash or managing a canteen roster.”

Jason says a meeting of the minds and some old-fashioned Kiwi ingenuity was the jumping off point for Lunchonline. The former owner of Heaven’s Bakery in Napier, Jason had contracted David – who was a consultant – to assist with business improvements. In conversation with David and his sister Sharon, who owns ABC Software with Julie, the group created the idea for a business they would each play a role in.

“I’d fielded a lot of phone calls and emails from schools wanting the bakery to provide school lunches, but I didn’t want the hassle of making a lot of food that might not sell, or handling cash and change. I mentioned it to Sharon and David from ABC, and it seemed like there might be a business there.”

Within a couple of months, ABC had designed a platform where whānau could log on, pick from a menu of appetising lunch items, pay, and then Jason and his bakery team would get to work fulfilling the order.

“Honestly, it was brilliant,” he says.

“I knew from the outset I would need 10 ham rolls, eight wraps, four chocolate brownies, and so on – so there was no waste.”

And no waste meant lower pricing for parents. “I could offer my items to schools at between six and 12 percent lower prices than you’d get in the cabinet, knowing it was all going on the courier van straight to the school. Nothing would get thrown away.”

From those early days selling pies and sandwiches, Lunchonline’s first-to-market platform expanded to more providers, more schools, and sought wider reach. It now provides school lunches to whānau from Whangarei to Invercargill, offering a wide variety of cuisines supplied by bakeries, burger bars and sandwich franchises to suit most dietary and cultural needs, including Halal, vegetarian and vegan options. But it’s sushi that is the most-ordered lunch item.

“That’s an indicator of how tastes have changed – back in 2010, it was all about the sausage rolls and sammies!”

With hospitality costs rising and families feeling the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis, Jason says the made-to-order model continues to deliver great value to lunch providers, as well as the almost 100,000 parents who have used the portal, relieving pressure on Mum and Dad and ensuring children’s bellies are full and their brains engaged. And it’s plugged a gap in crisis, too.

“After the Canterbury earthquakes, we were able to continue delivering lunches to schools when supermarkets were shut for demolition or repairs,” says Jason.

“Families couldn’t go and do their normal shopping, but we were able to step in and keep the lunches flowing.”

A bonus for schools that choose Lunchonline is that it serves as a small income for them as well. “A portion of each sale is redirected back to the school, so they earn something too.”

The Napier-headquartered Lunchonline team is adapting to new needs as they arise. It’s developed tools that can now process fundraising payments for school sausage sizzles, streamline the purchase of uniforms or sports apparel, enable tickets to the school production to be bought, or just about anything else the school and its whānau might require – all through the same secure online system.

“It’s been a change in mindset for schools and for families, but a really successful one,” says Jason.

“Still, our bread and butter remains the lunches. I’m proud that we’ve been able to make ordering a nutritious school lunch simpler for people, and helped hundreds of bakeries and food outlets stay afloat through 15 years of financial challenges and cost-of-living rises. For some, that’s made all the difference.”