About 1,000 people gathered for a picnic at the Meise Botanic Garden on Saturday in an attempt to break the record for Belgium’s longest lunch table and draw attention to child poverty.
The event was organised by Pelicano, the anti-child-poverty programme of the Queen Paola Foundation, to mark the Day of the Full Lunchbox. Princess Claire and Flemish Minister for Welfare and Poverty Reduction Caroline Gennez were among those who joined the meal.
Pelicano said the symbolic record attempt was meant to highlight the scale of the problem. According to the organisation, around 200,000 children in Belgium go to school each day with an empty lunchbox.
“If you were to place all the children who go to school every day with an empty lunchbox side by side, you would have the longest lunch table in Belgium,” said Leendert Van Hulle of Pelicano.
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He said each empty lunchbox represents a child starting the school day hungry. “On an empty stomach, it is harder to concentrate, to play with others and simply to feel part of the group,” he said.
Pelicano said the picnic was designed not just to raise awareness, but also to show that food insecurity is only one aspect of poverty. Van Hulle said children in poverty may also go without clothes, school supplies, sport or medical care.
The event also served as a fundraiser to support children living in poverty. Adults paid €20 and children €10, which included the meal, entry to the botanic garden and one of the lunchboxes specially designed by TikToker Timon Verbeeck and children’s book illustrator Quentin Gréban.
By Friday evening, the campaign had already raised the equivalent of more than 20,000 full lunchboxes, according to Pelicano.
“A full lunchbox can make a huge difference to a child, but children’s needs do not stop after lunch,” Van Hulle said. He added that Pelicano works with local partners to provide long-term support for as many children as possible, for as long as they need it.
