Covid-19: Māori Food Network sends out 25 tonnes of kai to struggling whānau
Wednesday, 15 September 2021
A “Māori Battalion-type” response to kai insecurity is proving effective in keeping at-risk whānau feed during Auckland’s level 4 lockdown by sending out more than 25 tonnes of food.
The Māori Network, established earlier this month, has delivered more than 130 pallets of kai to Māori providers to serve a catchment of 200,000 whānau in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Taumata Kōrero spokesman Huri Dennis said a system like this was important because of the impacts Covid-19 and lockdowns were having on “whānau living and working in Tāmaki Makaurau and the rest of the country”.
“The Māori Food Network is going to be here forever – it is going to continue on because there is a need for a system like this to serve our people across Tāmaki Makaurau – whether we are in lockdown or out of lockdown, in wartime or peacetime,” he said.
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Taumata Kōrero, which assists whānau from Te Hana to Port Waikato across Te Ika-a-Māui / the North Island, set up the network as a “crisis response due to the mounting pressures of the extended lockdown”.
The collective was formed in 2020 as a means to coordinate support services across the region, with its members including marae, Māori primary health providers, Whānau Ora providers, urban Māori authorities and Māori housing providers.
Members were reporting PPE gear poverty, power and rent challenges, and the “known need to focus on the working poor” who continued to be “challenged and worried” about their futures post-lockdown, Dennis said.
Significant koha in cash and products from the private sector had also boosted original seed funding given by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to help the initiative meet demand, the group said.
“The money is going keep food in the mouths of those that need across Tāmaki,” Dennis said.
The Government was also responding to demand by committing a further $10 million to help people, in particular Māori, access food and other essential items, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said.
“Our Government’s response so far has recognised the need for whānau-centred support, iwi-led responses for their local community, as well as support for Māori, Pacific and disabled communities,” Sepuloni said.
This funding aimed to provide continuity through a “challenging time, and as we stamp out Covid-19 from the community”, she said.
Since mid-August, more than $69 million in additional funding had been provided by to support organisations serving their communities, she said.
MSD data showed more than 40,400 food grants were requested in the week ending August 27, more than double the number requested at the same time last year.