claire kelly

Growing up in the UK, Claire started working as a waitress at 15 years old. She loved the buzz of the hospitality industry and has since spent many years both studying and working in it. Being exposed to a variety of amazing food and flavour combinations sparked Claire’s passion for trying new recipes and soon it became a bit of an obsession. “Food is a fantastic way to learn about people and places and such a great point of discussion to create bonds with one another.”

Now with four young children, Claire understands the difficulty of juggling the morning routines, school drop-offs, lunchboxes, after school activities and more, that is all part of raising a family. She started Lunch with Crunch to help alleviate some of that stress for parents and to provide kids with a nutritious, delicious lunch. Claire’s passionate about children learning more about taste, flavour and eating healthily and hopes to educate children in this through Lunch with Crunch.

Claire discovered The Kitchen Project at a time when she had a lot of ideas but was struggling with a plan of how to move forward. Now Claire has a lot more direction and focus for her business, she’s got her commercial kitchen up and running, and has recently been accepted as a vendor for the government school lunches programme.

“I’ve really loved the Kitchen Project – it’s done everything I hoped it would plus much, much more! I think one of the highlights for me has been walking around local markets and seeing my The Kitchen Project colleagues with their stalls. It’s easy to get bogged down with your own stuff but seeing others selling and succeeding brings it home how far we’ve all come.”

This year, Claire is focussed on growing her business through the government school lunches programme and providing lunches to early childhood centres. Claire is also hoping to establish baking and/or cooking classes to get kids into the kitchen and learning hands on. Currently Claire is offering lunches for parents to purchase at Tirimoana Primary school and Flanshaw Early Childhood Centre in West Auckland. You can follow Lunch with Crunch on Instagram or Facebook to keep up with their updates!