About the Starship Foundation
Starship is New Zealand’s national children’s hospital, firmly focused on providing sustainable world class healthcare for all New Zealand children. Since 1992 the Starship Foundation has invested more than $135 million into Starship Child Health, helping bring better health and brighter futures to children across New Zealand every day.
There are nearly 135,000 patient visits to Starship Child Health each year including around 1,000 outreach clinics all around the country. The Foundation invests in impact programs which focus on equity to ensure no child is left behind, prevention to keep our children safe and healthy in the community, programs which save and extend lives, new technology and treatments which result in faster recovery and better outcomes, as well as supporting patient wellbeing, lifting spirits, emotional and family support.
“Caring for our community is a cornerstone of our family-owned business and Starship is a natural partner for us to support given its tremendous and on-going impact on the health and well-being of children.” Peter Thompson, Barfoot & Thompson Managing Director.
Our Starship Journey
Barfoot & Thompson has been a sponsor of the Starship Foundation since 2003 and a Five-Star Partner since 2004, raising over $6 million during that time through a variety of creative and fun activities.
From company-wide initiatives, branch fundraising events and individual sales people’s efforts, the company is involved at every level to support the hospital and the people that are making a difference to Kiwi children’s lives.
The money we have raised has gone towards state-of-the-art medical technology such as oximeters, a new operating room, and refreshing procedure rooms and wards around the hospital. Most recently, we have supported two major projects - the development of Whare Hauora, and the expansion and refurbishment of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
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Recipes from our Bubbles
Barfoot & Thompson has come up with a tasty and topical new way to add to its longstanding support of Starship.
Featuring over 115 recipes of kitchen favourites from staff across its 75+ branches in Auckland and Northland, ‘Recipes from our Bubbles’ celebrates not only the regions’ diversity but the sense of connectivity and community that comes through sharing food.
From its inception in June 2020, this mighty little cookbook raised a total of $75,786 for the Starship Foundation and the brighter futures of New Zealand tamariki.
Thank you to all those who contributed their kitchen favourite, helped with the promotion and sale of each copy, and trusted our staff’s expertise in the heart of the home. Ka pai!
Magic of Reading
The Barfoot & Thompson Magic of Reading programme sees every child who spends a night in Starship Hospital receive a free book that they can take home with them. In just under 3 years, we have utilised a local NZ book supplier to gift over 52,000 books for Starship Children, and in the 18 years we have been supporting the Magic of Reading programme, we have given nearly 200,000 books with help from the Starship Foundation.
To celebrate 16 years of the Magic of Reading programme in 2020, we rounded up some of our favourite Sports Stars to bring Kiwi kids the Magic of Reading Story Book series. We believe reading is something everyone can engage with, whether it’s from a hospital room or seeking entertainment from home.
In the series, you will see Kiwi celebs bringing life to our Young Author’s Story Books. For over 10 years we ran a Young Author’s Challenge that saw thousands of original stories submitted from primary and intermediate aged children. The stories that our celebs are sharing with you were crowned the winning stories from their year, made into books and illustrated by Kevin Mealamu and other kiwi greats such as Benny Tipene, Otis Frizzell and more. The money from the books was then donated to Starship.
Get the kids ready to enjoy our videos of kiwi celebrities reading stories out loud, written by kiwi children.
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