Lorde donates $14,000 to help hungry school children

Lorde has donated $14,000 to a struggling charity drive which aims to give school lunches to under-privileged children.

Officials at Dalton's Gym Charitable Trust in the singer's native New Zealand created a fundraising page for their Fuel The Need campaign in February (16) but they were struggling to meet their $14,000 goal before the end of July (16).

Radio New Zealand reported last week (ends26Jun16) that the charity, which aims to provide 50 under-privileged children with school lunches, was having issues gathering financial support from local businesses.

It appears Lorde heard of their struggle and helped them out by donating their entire target of $14,000 to their Givealittle.co.nz page on Wednesday (29Jun16).

"Good on you Manuel and Fuel the Need - hope this helps a little bit," she wrote with her donation, under her real name Ella Yelich-O'Connor. "Lots of love from a former kid who is passionate about all kids having access to food at school."

"To date we'd raised around $1400, so when (Lorde's payment) came through, it was absolutely amazing," organiser Manuel Dalton said, according to newshub.co.nz.

"It's allowed us to get all the balls rolling that we had waiting in the background. This is the start point. We need consistent and continued contributions to allow us to feed these kids, to give them the energy they need to complete their school day."

On the fundraising page, the charity heads explained that they met with primary school principals in the city of Upper Hutt and identified 50 children who regularly go without lunch and they hope to provide them with food.

Lorde has previously encouraged her Instagram followers to donate to a similar charity, Eat My Lunch. With the scheme, people pay for a food delivery service which will send them a daily lunch, and another to a child in need. She subscribed to the service, and wrote that she was also sponsoring a school to give them all the lunches they need.