NEW YORK: Chelsea
The Lunchbox Fund hosted Fall Fete 2013, an evening supporting the organization’s work to provide meals for orphaned and vulnerable school children in South Africa. The event took place at Buddakan on 16th Street in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, adjacent to the Meatpacking District. The organization was founded by South African native Topaz Page-Green and has since exploded via celebrity patrons and a great cause.
Founder & Executive Director Topaz Page-Green and Advisory Board Member Salman Rushdie
Executive Board Member Mario Batali
Contributing artist Harif Guzman (top center)
Long time supporter and contributor Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
English legendary rock artist and contributor Mick Rock
MISSION: Fostering education via nutrition, The Lunchbox Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a daily meal for orphaned and vulnerable school children in township and rural areas of South Africa, a country where 65% of all children live in poverty. Receiving food encourages these children to stay in school and obtain their education. When a child stays in school, his or her risk of HIV infection, abuse and unwanted pregnancies is greatly reduced.
Executive Board Members Joaquin Phoenix and Topaz Page-Green
Live Tyler and Mickey Sumner
Maggie Gyllenhaal and guest
Nur Khan
Genevieve Bahrenburg, Topaz Page-Green and guest
The evening’s festivities included a surprise music performance as well as an auction of artwork created for the event by famed artists including Donald Baechler, Tim Blum, Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Tara Donovan, Shepherd Fairy, Martin Puryear, Isca Greenfield Sanders, Timothy Greenfield Sanders, Katia Santibanez, Michael Stipe, Dustin Yellin, Hunter Barnes, Oliver Clegg, Danny Clinch, Alan Cumming, Toss DiCiurcio, Jesse Frohman, Tim Furzer, Bob Gruen, Harif Guzman, Curtis Kulig, Mick Rock & Lou Reed, James Siena, Kiki Smith, Senzo Shabanguand and more. In addition, the evening will also introduce the Lunchbox Fund’s Feedie app which is the first philanthropy app for foodies. Feedie users can locate participating restaurants using the app’s map feature and are easily able to make an instant donation to the fund by simply snapping a photo of their meal and posting via the Feedie app. Feedie users can also utilize the app to share their photos and favoriterestaurants on other social media platforms including Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and Google.
Francesco Civetta aka DJ CASH
Topaz Page-Green and Philippe-Artus J. Hoerle
Publisher, TV Personality and musician Scott Lipps (right) and guest
Philippe-Artus J. Hoerle, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Billy Crudup and Nur Khan
South Africans in festivity
Liv Tyler and Philippe-Artus J. Hoerle
PART OF THE MISSION STATEMENT: Today, 19.6% of all children in South Africa are orphans, with approximately 1.9 Million of those children orphaned as a result of HIV and AIDS. Unemployment is a severe problem where we work, resulting in many of the students at our partner schools not having access to adequate nutrition or basic health care.
The simple act of providing each child with protein-rich peanut butter sandwiches and a piece of fruit, or hearty soups, stews with vegetables or enriched porridge, makes a substantial difference as it nurtures and encourages each child’s attendance and performance at school. Not only is it often their only guaranteed meal of a day, but children are more likely to attend and stay in school to obtain this basic sustenance.
