News

As we all know we here at Munch Cupboard are an eco-friendly social enterprise that produce high quality sustainable eco products for the whole family. We have three key aspects that we stand firmly by and they are the following:

Sustainable Motherhood workforce: we know how hard it can be getting back into work whilst being a mumma so we aim to help mummas get back out there. All but one of our staff are mummas and we could not be prouder.

Eco-friendly products: We strive to provide eco-friendly, unique products with strong design elements.

Advocates-Stand Up: We here at Munch aim to be strong advocates for our children. We run the Munch Awards each year which raise awareness for the good and bad in the kid’s food industry. We strive for a world without plastic, hence is why we brought out our Munch Produce Bags. To read more about issues we are involved in head to our stand-up page.

We are so unbelievably thrilled and honoured that we have been nominated for the ‘Hard Wired for Social Good’ category at the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards 2018. We are up against some other amazing companies but really are so honoured to be one of the finalists.

So what are the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards?

As stated on the website “The Awards recognise and celebrate success in sustainability”. These awards have been running for 16 years and it is all about celebrating the contributions that businesses and individuals contribute to transforming New Zealand. The ‘Hard Wired for Social Good’ award, we are nominated for, focuses on “an organisation that is deliberately and consistently improving people’s lives through its day to day business practices. Social good is integrated throughout the whole organisation.”

The awards are held on the 22^ndNovember 2018 and we are lucky enough to attend. Of course we would love to win this amazing award but we are just so honoured to be a finalist. To read more about the awards click here

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Tasha tells us about her experiences of the Munch Reusable Sandwich Wraps. 

Tasha is a thirty something working mama living in Wellington, New Zealand.  Her family comes from Gibraltar, husband Keith comes from Essex and she has lived on several continents.  Her blog used to be called The Maybe Diaries, and began in 2008 as a way to stop her going insane while she was trying (and failing) to start a family. In 2009 she had our son Alfie, and her daughters Esme in 2011 and Olive in 2013. None of them were born the way she had hoped. None of them were fed in the way she had hoped and there started her real life lesson in what it means to be a parent.  Her blog has recently changed its name to Wondersouly Other.

This is what Tasha had to say about the Munch Reusable Sandwich Wraps:

“Considering the simplicity of their construction, sandwiches can be tricky beasts, especially when made in advance and carried to a school or office.

Use cling wrap and your sandwich will develop a slightly clammy feel; use tinfoil and it will be dry. Use wax paper and string and you’ll spend your evenings feeling you are trying to wrestle a cat into a tutu.

I agreed to review the Munch Reusable Food & Sandwich Wrap in the hope that it would solve my sandwich protection dilemmas in an eco friendly, and very attractive way.

The Munch Reusable Food & Sandwich Wrap is great for wrapping anything that is roughly square shaped; sandwiches, wraps cut in half, pita breads, rolls and bagels all fit snugly and can be safely installed into a lunchbox.

My son, always one to favour the theatrical, has fallen in love with our tester and now requests wraps for his school lunch rather than his previous staple of pasta. I suspect this is in part because the Munch Reusable Food & Sandwich Wrap lends a real sense of occasion to lunchtimes.

The combination of colourful design and easy close Velcro means that to all intents and purposes my son has the lunch equivalent of a birthday present to unwrap at school. The wipe clean inner transforms into a handy plate substitute once the sandwich has been unwrapped and come the end of the meal, the entire thing can be roughly folded and brought home for further use without leaving any waste.

The only limitation to the Munch Reusable Food & Sandwich Wrap is that it wraps to a single size and shape. I’m not sure I know anyone who determinedly supplies their children with long, narrow lunches, but if you are one such parent, this might not be the product for you.”

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EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women, what is it?

The beginning of the year is a time to buy stock and plan for the next. It really is not a time to do some personal development. Having said that, you do not get much time for personal development, when you run your own business, as you are just running! Unlike the ole corporate days when it is always available.  Also you always try to look after your amazing team and the business generally before anything else.

Anyhow a lovely lady from Ernst Young asked me to apply for the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women Awards. She chased me a few times, as I have been so focused on getting money into the door rather than spending time on my development. Anyhow she was so persistent, thankfully, that I did apply and I got it in.

The EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women Awards – New Zealand programme is an executive leadership programme that identifies a select group of high-potential women entrepreneurs whose businesses show real potential to upscale — and helps them do it. It is designed for women with established businesses who are ready to upscale operations and grow to become global market leaders.

Our annual EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women Awards – programme brings entrepreneurial winning women together to meet with a diverse and experienced community of successful entrepreneurs, board executives, industry leaders, and professionals who work with entrepreneurs around the world.

Many programmes focus on helping women to start a business. Entrepreneurial Winning Women is focused on accelerating growth for businesses that have moved beyond start-up.

We provide practical strategies and an action plan to ensure your growth is both ambitious and built on a solid foundation. This is a hands-on workshop, focused on sharing knowledge and insights from successful entrepreneurs, to motivate and inspire you to take your business growth plans to a whole new level by:

Thinking big and being bold
Building a public profile
Working on the business rather than in it
Establishing key advisory networks
Evaluating finance options for expansion

To be selected for the New Zealand EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman Award, you must meet the following criteria:

Woman business owners
Minimum of NZ$1m in sales in each of the last 2 years
The business has the potential to grow substantially

I meet some amazing women from mainly service based industries such as a gaming company, HR company, ex sports Olympian, medical services, charities and many more.  Over the time we all talked about our businesses and set the discussion against 7 Drivers of Growth.  A big thank you to EY for providing such a course and inviting me to attend.

Now fun time is over, back to business as usual!!

Anna

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We asked Zoe to do a review on our Eco Hero Dinnerset (which includes the eco hero bowl, cup, lid, fork, spoon and slip mat) and see what she said below…

There comes a time in every baby’s life where milk alone no longer cuts the mustard, and just when you thought you had enough baby ‘stuff’ to get you through to when she leaves for uni, you realise you’ve a need for baby feeding paraphernalia.

As a mum of 3, I like to think I’ve tried a fair few things in this department. Melamine, enamel, porcelain, plastic with some sort of Elsa sticker – all come with their pros and cons (Pros: they hold food. Cons: they last approximately 2.9 meals before being broken or leaching toxins and stickers into food) and all seem to have one thing in common: they leave me wondering “what on earth possessed me to part with my money for THIS?”
Enter, the Eco Hero Dinnerset from Munch Cupboard.

So why rice husks? Well, rice husks are part of the rice plant.  They use to be burnt after harvest and now we can make our eco hero range out of this ‘by – product’. How cool is that?  Making use of rubbish!! I just love that concept.  Also the rice husk is biodegradable, so that means once you have finished with your eco hero product, just pop it in your compost and it will break down.  And no, it does not mean that our products are ‘one use products’.  It means that maybe in 50 years when you have finished using them, then you can through them out and you know that they will feed the earth!

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I stumbled across Krystine Nation from Real Life Wife last month and thought she was so so funny.  She did a fantastic video on the mum bun and I related to it really well.  So we decided to ask her to do a Munch Ice Pop product review for us.  We reckon if she keeps up her social media presence she will definitely increase her following because she is so funny and real!

Below is some snipets of what she thought about in her Munch Ice Pop product review.  You can read more over at her website here.

I will definitely be purchasing some more of these to stock up for summer and any visitors we might have over the holidays. My girls are looking forward to making up their own mixtures as well and being in charge of their own treats! ( healthy treats of course ). I really don’t think that i have anything negative to say about this product as they are so handy and have so many uses. In the summer i always put out Giant

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