Levin food support organisation is feeding bodies and healing souls

Some of the awesome Hope Kete crew, from left - Leon Wickliffe, Tania Turipa, Charlotte Birkett and James Darwin. Photo / Nikki Carroll

A few years ago, Levin woman Tania Turipa was struggling as a solo mother of six children and turned to Te Awahou Kai in Foxton for help with feeding her family.

Eventually Tania began helping out with food parcel creation and distribution – all the while thinking to herself that something similar needed to be set up closer to home.

Te Awahou Kai organiser Linda Lake mentioned to Tania that Rebecca Culver, founder of food rescue organisation Just Zilch in Palmerston North, was keen to support a community food source being set up in Levin as well.

"This was really going out of my comfort zone," said Tania. "I was very shy and withdrawn at the time … the idea of trying to set up a business … asking people for help … terrified me."

On Mondays and Tuesdays, volunteers from the community and Legacy Church come in to help sort through the donated grocery items. Photo / Nikki Carroll

Early 2020 Tania started planning how to set up a Levin-based food rescue operation, however with the country going into lockdown in March, plans for Hope Kete had to be put on hold.

Tania began to wonder if she should start job-hunting while she waited for the opportunity to get the business up and running.

"Then out of the blue a local business contacted us to say they were going to supply [us with] 60kg of mince every week for the rest of the year," Tania said.

With the rest of the food being supplied by Just Zilch and Paraparaumu-based Kaibosh, Hope Kete began business from Hope Church's community café in Kent St on Wednesday, August 19.

Just some of the goods that are donated by NZ Food Network partners, as well as businesses like Labelle Food, for Hope Kete to distribute to those in need. Photo / Nikki Carroll

That first day of operation saw 63 people turn up, with 748 items of food being counted and handed out by the volunteers.

Leon Wickliffe was one of the original volunteers who helped out on that day, and is still turning up every week to lend a hand.

Arriving in Levin in late 2019, Leon was living on the streets and doing drugs. He was a regular at Legacy Church's weekly community meal Just Hope.

"One day I ended up in the kitchen helping prep the food, then I started going to the church services," said Leon.

"Now I've been clean for 18 months and I volunteer [at Hope Kete] to give back to the community that saved me."

Another volunteer is James Darwin, a local man who originally came to the Hope Centre for the free meals like Leon.

When James first asked if he could help at Hope Kete, he was so wasted that Tania was really hesitant to let him.

"She told me if I got straight I could help," said James, "and I've been sober for six months now. Being part of [Hope Kete] has definitely helped with my journey."

Tania was introduced to Hope Church member Karen Morley, who took on the administration duties for Hope Kete, and in less than two years sourced funding for three paid roles within the organisation, including her own.

Another of the funded positions was the manager role, which Tania had been doing for over a year on a volunteer basis. With funding received from MSD in October last year, Tania was able to come off her benefit.

Charlotte Birkett's role with Hope Kete is also funded, although she originally started out standing in line on Wednesdays, with her foster daughter, waiting for food assistance.

"My daughter really wanted to help give out food to the people," said Charlotte, "so we'd come along most weeks, get our food, and then she'd help out."

Tania eventually encouraged Charlotte to volunteer as well, and then earlier this year funding whiz Karen sourced a contract from MSD for Hope Kete to be the Horowhenua hub for creating and delivering care parcels for locals isolating with Covid.

Charlotte has had 30 hours paid work a week since March with this role, which will probably carry on for the rest of the year, and has been clean for 11 months.

The number of people seeking food assistance dropped slightly in the early part of 2021, but shot right back up during the second lockdown.

"We made up 150 parcels when we reopened during the second week of Level 3 (early September)," said Tania, "all were given out and we nearly wiped out the entire store room."

And the demand has not really decreased since then, with 133 people coming through the doors over three hours on the first Wednesday in May, and more than 2700kg of food being given out that week through the 'store', the isolation food parcels and outreach deliveries in Foxton, Shannon and Levin.

Hope Kete currently has 12 volunteers helping out with deliveries on Mondays and Tuesdays and distribution through the 'store' on Wednesdays.

The group receives donations of meat and vegetables from the local community, but the majority of the food comes from other NZ Food Network partners like Just Zilch and Kaibosh, as well as Labelle Food and Manawatu Fruit Harvest.

Tania's short-term goal is to find a sponsor to get the delivery vans signwritten and to source a few more volunteer drivers/helpers for the deliveries.

Her long-term goals range from obtaining a bigger space in the centre of town to being able to offer a range of free products beyond just grocery items.

If you're interested in knowing more about what Hope Kete does and how you can help, check out the Facebook page Hope Kete - Levin Free Food Store or email karen@hopelevin.org.nz