The Big Feed: Hitchhiking Waikato farmer to get 1 tonne of mince for every landmark reached

Dairy farmer Colin Hickey, and his daughter Mikayla, before he set off on his hitchhiking tout from Auckland to Christchurch for The Big Feed rural telethon. Photo / Supplied / Meat the Need

North Waikato dairy farmer Colin Hickey’s hitchhiking tour for charity has just had a boost.

Meat production company Anzco has jumped on board to support his fundraising effort dubbed The Hickey Tour and will be donating 1 tonne of mince for every landmark he reaches on his journey from Auckland to Lincoln.

Hickey started his journey at 4am today and is thumbing his way down the country for The Big Feed live rural telethon.

The Big Feed kicked off at 6am and will run for 14 hours.

It aims to raise a total of 1.2 million mince and milk meals for food banks across New Zealand.

Anzco was among the first to call the telethon, pledging the 1 tonne mince donation.

“I am completely and utterly blown away by this, it’s quite overwhelming really,” Hickey said.

His first landmark was in Hamilton, at the farming family statue in Victoria Street - so he had already earned a tonne of mince this morning.

“I just have so much gratitude for Anzco right now, 1 tonne of mince is a massive donation, let alone for every landmark I get to,” he said.

“I thought this was going to be an entertaining hitchhike down the country to raise awareness of the telethon, but now there’s a whole lot of responsibility to make it work and get to as many places as I can.

Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Colin Hickey on The Country below:

“If all I have to do is stand in front of a statue to get 1 tonne of mince, that’s bloody easy.

“And if that’s all I have to do so someone else can get a feed then that’s amazing and I won’t stop till I get to Lincoln.”

Watch The Big Feed live here.

A spokesperson for Anzco said the company was extremely proud to be involved with Meat the Need’s The Big Feed by donating mince packs to food banks.

“Anzco acknowledges that the demand for protein is significant and is pleased to be able to support an initiative impacting the growing number of people around the country who need assistance to feed their families.”

How to support The Big Feed

Anyone can call the Meat the Need team on 0800 632 884 from 6am this morning.

• Donations of livestock, milk, virtual animals or funds can be made online at meattheneed.org.
• Donations can also be made by texting “feed” to 3493 to automatically give $3.
• The Big Feed will be streaming live on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and at meattheneed.org.
• One hundred per cent of all donations will be turned into mince and milk meals for food banks nationwide.