Good-quality surplus food has been distributed to the community through the efforts of the Whanganui Kai Collective. Photo / NZME
Good-quality surplus food has been distributed to the community through the efforts of the Whanganui Kai Collective. Photo / NZME
The vision for a food collection and distribution centre in Whanganui will become a reality next year once the lease on a central city location is finalised.
Since Covid-19 arrived in the country last year there has been a growing collaboration of Whanganui food gatherers and distributors working to ensurethe community has enough to eat and minimise food waste at the same time.
The Whanganui Kai Hub project emerged from a series of hui between a variety of collaborating organisations around the city as part of the recovery from Covid-19 alert level 4 lockdown in 2020.
Kai Ora - the Whanganui Kai Collective was formed in mid-2020 and developed a vision for a centralised hub for food rescue and community food redistribution.
In March this year, the collective received a $7800 grant from Whanganui District Council's Waste Minimisation Fund for a feasibility study, which has been completed by Joe Thompson and Julie Crocker, of the Kai Hub action group.
In June, a "feasible feast" was held where the community was invited to enjoy food cooked by collective members, and 80kg of food collected from local businesses was redistributed.
The initiative has been supported by the Countdown Food Rescue programme with donations of safe, high-quality surplus food as well as financial support from the food rescue partners contestable fund.
Kai Ora Kai Collective member Beth Savage said the food redistribution through local charities had been going well and the support from local businesses had been fantastic.
"We now have an EV vehicle on loan so we can now use it to collect and distribute the food to our community partners," she said.
"We are working towards establishing the hub and we hope to soon purchase our own EV vehicle."
Savage said the collective was currently focused on the collection and distribution of food while working towards the establishment of the hub.
"Once the hub is established we will have a collection point where people can bring their excess produce to share," she said.
"If someone has a surplus of lemons, for example, they can bring them to the hub.
It is also envisaged that there will be regular community meals cooked in a commercial kitchen and food advice and recipes to share.
Kai collective member Dave Hursthouse is coordinator of the Socio-Ecological Learning Environment at Piwakawaka Farm and chairperson of Permaculture New Zealand.
Hursthouse made a recent presentation to the council's recent strategy and finance committee and asked that the council "pull the necessary levers" to enable the optimisation of food production and availability in the district.
"Whanganui has the collective intelligence to make this a reality," he said.
"All of us can work together and set a Good Food Road Map," he said.
The map, he said, involves moving from waste to respect, from food insecurity to abundance, from reliance and whakamā (embarrassment) to resilience and empowerment, transitioning to a sustainable kai system that realises the true value of resources and human potential.
Councillor Philippa Baker Hogan asked Hursthouse what the council could do to support the initiatives.
Hursthouse said local authorities were supporting similar initiatives around the country by providing strategic guidance and in some cases making land available.
"In Auckland, a vacant site was made available for a local initiative to grow food and they were given a long-term lease for $1," he said.
Joe Thompson, Graeme Pearson, John Wilson, Jo Buckingham, Jay Rerekura, Lauren Tamehana, Louise Oskam, Beth Savage, and (front) Julie Crocker.
Photo / Bevan Conley
The committee also heard from Thompson and Crocker on the findings of the feasibility study and the pilot programme underway.
Crocker said the two-fold vision for the project was waste minimisation and community connection.
"It's about providing a regular and reliable service to our food donors so they know where the food is going, that it's in good hands and going out to the community," she said.
"It's to build a reciprocal agreement around kai."
Thompson said other initiatives from around the world and Aotearoa had been referred to for inspiration and the specifics for Whanganui were now being explored in consultation with local groups.
"We're going at a pace that allows enough time for questions and feedback," he said.
Three local groups - Te Ora Hou, The City Mission, and the Koha Food Collective - are participating in the pilot phase.
Thompson said an app has been developed to help measure the availability of food and how much would need to be diverted for animal feed and composting.
The collective has applied for central government funding to employ a fulltime coordinator, a driver and purchase an electric vehicle.
