Z’s Good in the Hood shares $1m with 500+ groups each year.
New Zealanders will never forget the devastating 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, but out of those dark days came a Kiwi campaign that bonds community groups and everyday people – Good in the Hood.
For Anton Hutton, who operates 15 Z sites in and around Christchurch alongside Hamish Wright, the programme has always been personal. They’ve been at the heart of it from the beginning.
Good in the Hood is Z’s flagship community initiative, distributing $1 million each year to more than 500 groups, from food security and youth development to safety and wellbeing, with a continued focus this year on ensuring Māori-led organisations are well represented.
The idea is simple: hyper-local support decided by customers. Each site gives $5000 to four chosen non-profit community groups, with customers using orange tokens to vote during the 26 August–22 September campaign. Another $1000 is set aside for local needs at the discretion of Z station teams.
“I’ve been with Shell and Z for 25 years now, so I’ve been here since Good in the Hood began, in the terrible aftermath of the earthquakes,” Hutton recalls.
“We saw the opportunity to connect with our charities and our schools and those in need in a really different way. But it’s certainly come a long way since then. This year we have 60 non-profit community groups that we’re working with across our 15 locations.
“Some spring to mind like the Hoonhay Food Bank – we’ve done a lot of work with them, not just at this time but across the year; we’ve helped them through some challenges they’ve had over this year.
“We’ve worked with Hōhepa Canterbury (intellectual disabilities support) and its amazing residents for many years with activities beyond Good in the Hood, and that’s built a beautiful partnership.
“Then there’s Bellyful, who cook and deliver free meals to whānau with babies or young children who need support. They have been kind enough to host us several times when our team cooks or helps prepare meals for them to distribute.”
Hutton says the community bond goes far beyond the on-site vote – for the community groups, for the staff, and for the customers.
“Our team absolutely love it, and every year it’s a huge and really exciting experience to go through all the applications. Some of our team have stayed on with some of these organisations after the campaign and now volunteer their own time.
“For the customers, it’s amazing how many people discover things happening in their communities that they haven’t known about, and which connect back to the things they love about their community. And it’s wonderful that they’re empowered to have their say in how that $5000 is split across those groups.
“For the groups, it’s a fabulous opportunity to let the community know they’re there and what they’re doing.”
Hutton says it’s humbling to realise that it has come about because the Z stations have been “a conduit or a middle person for the fabulous non-profit community groups and our customers.”
He and his team have always considered their sites to be community hubs. “It’s part of our belief system and it lets us express our love and our care for our community. We see ourselves as part of our community, not just a business.”
For Z, Good in the Hood has been central to its promise of ‘Z is for New Zealand’. The transport energy leader says when it was formed in 2011, it listened to what its customers wanted from a Kiwi company, and community was a key theme.
That came to the fore after the quakes. Z asked its Christchurch teams what would help them – leaving decisions in local hands – while opening its Christchurch office for drinking water and showers and sending a campervan of goods from Wellington.
Christchurch retailers donated to regional charities and schools to support local communities to cope with the devastation. That inspired Good in the Hood, leading to its national rollout in 2012.
Good in the Hood has since evolved – from backing frontline social services to adding environmental groups in 2017, assessing its social impact with the Ākina Foundation in 2019, and trialling nationwide funding during the Covid-19 pandemic before returning to its hyper-local roots.
In 2025, Z is again working with community ambassador Dave Letele to help more Māori-led organisations take part and ensure the programme reaches the people who need it most.
Following a major review, Z used New Zealand Deprivation Index data and engaged with retailers to gain a deeper understanding of local challenges, the nature of its retailers’ existing relationships with local non-profits and where Good in the Hood could make a meaningful impact.
It piloted new priorities in 2023, enabling distribution of additional funds to areas of higher deprivation and stronger engagement with retailers, site staff and recipients.
This led Z to grow the programme and foster stronger relationships with groups that might not have applied for assistance in the past.
More info: z.co.nz