Fonterra delivering Christmas cheer to Kiwi families through New Zealand Food Network

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Fonterra is spreading Christmas cheer this year through its partnership with the New Zealand Food Network.

This year, the New Zealand Food Network charity estimated that one in five Kiwi families were likely to go hungry at Christmas.

Chief Operating Officer at Fonterra Fraser Whineray told The Country Sport Breakfast's Lee Piper that the co-op was donating products to help out those Kiwi families.

"Anchor's going to be donating some New Zealand milk, cream, cheese, custard and butter into some hampers and those will go to 15,000 families."

The hampers would also include Christmas lunch essentials and fresh produce, along with breakfast and pantry staples, Whineray said.

People could make a monetary contribution through Anchor's website where, for every $25 raised, a recipient family would get a hamper with $100 worth of Christmas goodies, Whineray said.

Listen below:

Fonterra was also running an internal appeal where the co-op would match every dollar donated by employees.

"So we'll keep on scaling it up if we can, with more donations from the public, and also Fonterra employees."

Whineray revealed he had already donated.

"I've just gone on there and put in a donation myself actually, so I'm looking forward to the company matching that and helping those people in need."

The New Zealand Food Network is a food charity that stores and re-distributes large volumes of surplus and donated food. Fonterra was a founding corporate partner of the charity, Whineray said.

"What it actually does is integrate the distribution of food to many of the frontline organisations such as The Salvation Army, Women's Refuge, local food banks, low decile schools and things like that."

"So the charity's really integral to getting food to where it's needed and doing it really efficiently so the maximum benefit gets to the people that need it."

Find out more at Anchor's website.

Also in today's interview: Whineray spoke about Fonterra's Q1 Results which are being released later this morning.