Tauranga’s Tē Tuinga Whānau Support Services unveils plan for Kai Co-op

Minister Marama Davidson flanked by Te Tuinga Support Services Trust executive director Tommy Wilson and chairwoman Beth Bowden. Photo / Carmen Hall

Plans to establish a Kai Co-op in Tauranga to address poverty and “cut out the middle man” is being tabled by a social agency that believes marae will make ideal distribution centres.

Tē Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust executive director Tommy Wilson said it was important to start in the initiative locally and he hoped it would help vulnerable people.

Wilson said it was about benefiting people ‘‘at the very low end of the poverty ladder who cannot afford food’’.

‘‘We are going to look at forming a co-op, just locally for our marae and our families here in Tauranga Moana.”

It wanted to get good food at good prices. “We don’t want our people to have to make a decision between toothpaste and kūmara.”

Wilson said food could potentially be boxed up at kiwifruit packhouses and taken to marae to be distributed to families.

“We see food poverty every day at Tē Tuinga. So we can either do something about it, or let get worse, and it will only get worse.

“We are now in a recession and it’s going to be a tough winter so let’s start getting food to families that need it the most. People can’t afford kai anymore.”

Iwi, collectively, could increase the buying power and the initiative had the potential to go nationwide, he said.

Wilson discussed the plan with Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Minister Marama Davidson on Thursday.

She was in Tauranga visiting organisations involved with housing as the Associate Minister for Housing and she expressed interest and supported the idea of a Kai Co-op.

Asked what Government help it needed to help support community leadership on the project, Tē Tuinga chairwoman Beth Bowden said it went beyond funding.

“It’s not squashing us into existing structures. This is a new radical, transformative approach and we are not dealing with the duopoly we are coming at it from the side.”

Davidson said the social sector commissioning programme was being revamped and while that was ka pai (good), “it’s too long away for me”.

She was advocating for change with officials, agencies and ministers across the board.

“So what I’m saying is let’s just find the opportunities now to be far more flexible. To be far more high-trust, to be far more relationship-based rather than transactional-based and we are starting to see pockets of that,” she said.

“This is a beautiful proposal and I think we should find any means possible to work outside the traditional confines ... to be truly collaborative.”

Davidson said, in her view, some of the current contracting models were quite competitive and forced people to be competitive when they should be working together.

She also said no part of the country was immune to hardship and struggle.

Carmen Hall is a news director for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, covering business and general news. She has been a Voyager Media Awards winner and a journalist for 25 years.