Vinnies and gangs dish out sandwiches to needy children

Tuesday, August 18th, 2015

You may not be surprised to know that the St Vincent de Paul Society in Hamilton has the Loaves & Fishes programme, which takes school lunches to children in 24 Hamilton schools.

What may be more of an eye opener is that a local gang is doing the same thing.

The Tribal Huks is a gang from from Ngaruawahia.

Dubbed the ‘sandwich gang’, their president Jamie Pink says they fill a social need that wasn’t being catered for adequately.

They have been feeding hungry kids in 31 Waikato schools for four years.

Now a gang wants to provide nourishment for kids in need across the country.

“Over 400 we reach a day; not enough … There are so many hungry kids in the country, on a huge scale, and it isn’t getting any better,” said Pink.

Last week Pink and the gang started Kai 4 the future foundation and have kick-started it with a sum of $20,000.

The foundation is set up to collect money to purchase food for hungry children across the country.

The $20,000 foundation kickstart from the gang came from a membership tithing of a “few hundred.”

Pink guarantees the money was made and given legitimately.

“We put the hat around, we’ve been saving for a little bit for this.”

“When you have that many members you can get that money together.”

Pink says there is about 300 members and associates of the huks.

He says knows the stigma that comes with being in a gang but wants the foundation to work.

For transparency and legitimacy he has brought on board “good people” to be signatories for the foundation’s accounts.

“Some are community leaders, some run community houses; all these people are good people.”

“The money isn’t going through the gang and we can show that.”

Ngaruawahia Community House manager Anne Ramsay is one of those that has been elected as a signatory.

Ramsay says that although she has apprehensions about Pink’s gang ties- his heart and his commitment to the children are true.

“I really support the work that they do,” Ramsay said.

“I probably have a few concerns around the perception of his gang involvement and hopefully that won’t cloud people’s thinking about it.”

The plan is to set up a proper trust and continue to provide sandwiches in schools, as he has been doing already, and extend that to more schools.”

The gang have been offered a lot of money since the Waikato Times broke the story of their good deeds in October 2014, but they have refused it.

“A lot of people have tried to give money online and personally too, but we’ve said no. We’ve taken food though and we always said we’d take food and give it to the kids.”

“But here’s a way they can give money and know that it’s going to be watched over by the good people to feed the kids.”

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