‘Eat for a Good Cause’ shows the way
Venkat Raman
When Smita Kanwar, Channel and Business Development Manager (International and Migrant Banking) at ANZ learnt from the print and social media that thousands of New Zealand children attend school either undernourished or unnourished, she decided to do something decisive.
“After all,” she told herself, “I would not want my four-year daughter Krisha attend school as a hungry child; why should any other child?”
Supportive ANZ
Encouraged by her Bank’s supportive attitude towards staff volunteering to help community groups, she contacted Brijesh Sethi, Director of the Kingsland based ‘Zing Restaurant’ (located at where Ms Kanwar and her team had dined recently.
She asked Mr Sethi if he would support the ‘Eat for a Good Cause’ Project.
The idea was simple: Sell lunch boxes to ANZ staff at $16 and donate 50% ($8) to ‘KidsCan’ (which this newspaper has been supporting for the past several years). A bonus was that every purchaser would go into a draw, with the winner getting a $50 voucher to dine at ‘Zing.’
Ms Kanwar enlisted three senior bankers at ANZ, namely Mark Hill-Rennie (Regional Manager, Auckland East), Jack Hou (Head of Migrant Banking and Auckland Asian Banking) and Padmini Vikash (Regional Manager, Auckland South) with their ready support.
This team has the support of ANZ management and staff, some of the latter including Lynnette Carruthers, Bhakti Mehta, Miki Lee, Lin Zeng, Sam Lee, Bandhana Singh, Julie Tan, Tyerell Moodley and Shaun Carruthers.
Brijesh Sethi Passion
Mr Sethi, who has been involved in the education sector for the past 15 years, owns the New Zealand School of Education and Advanced Training Centres in West, South, Central Auckland, North Shore and Hamilton. He agreed instantly to the proposal.
“I am passionate about the children and youth of our country and hence the Project was appealing. Smita was keen to support KidsCan and also provide quality food to her team at ANZ. ‘Zing’ is a restaurant, not a takeaway, and hence we had to subsidise the cost to make this initiative more effective,” he said.
“We work hard for the success of our students, who cannot focus on empty stomach. We do our best to ensure that our students do not go hungry. Food is almost always available for students at some of our campuses. NZSE provides bread and butter, while our team approaches food companies to donate cereals, arrange food parcels and even cook for students,” Mr Sethi added.
Staff Volunteers
That sentiment matches well with ANZ, whose stated purpose is “to help shape the world where people and communities thrive.”
ANZ staff are encouraged to donate one working day each year to offer help within the community and spend collectively 15,000 working hours.
The team that feeds: (from left) Smita Kanwar, Brijesh Sethi, Padmini Vikash, Jack Hou and Mark Hill-Rennie
A Chef at Zing Restaurant prepares lunch (Pictures Supplied)
