The charity feeding whānau by rescuing food before it’s binned

Sunday, 29 September 2024

Wonky carrots, marked onions and loaves of bread left at the end of the day are just some of the food ending up in New Zealand landfills, while every day, thousands of Kiwis go hungry.

But one Wellington charity, Kaibosh Food Rescue , is doing something about the problem

Last year it collected 760,337 kg of food, equivalent to more than 2 million meals, that would have otherwise been sent to landfill. The food was then distributed to 154 charities across the Wellington region.

“I don't think it's fair that so many people are going hungry in a country where we should be able to feed them,” said Kaibosh’s chief executive Susie Robertson.

Kaibosh Food Rescue describes itself as a bridge between the food industry and people, sourcing food from supermarkets, local producers, bakeries and farmers markets.

Robertson said the good quality food Kaibosh Food Rescue was sent was “mind boggling”.

Visiting their kitchen in Petone ahead of today’s International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction, it’s easy to see why.

Boxes of produce sometimes had visible marks, or funny shapes, but a lot of the food had nothing “wrong” with it at all.

While there was limited data on just how much food New Zealand was wasting, Robertson said one in three produce items did not make it to the table.

“We're wasting all this precious taonga, and it's going into landfill, and causing methane emissions.”

Food waste not only undermined food security, but wasted resources like water, land and energy.

In the hospitality industry, 44% of food waste was in the preparation, 43% from plate waste, and 13% from spoilage.

While the food industry played a big role in wastage, Robertson said the average household lost $1500 worth of food - or three shopping trolleys - to the landfill each year and while there was some responsibility with the consumer, a greater system change in “the consumer mindset” was needed.

“A classic example is when you go to the supermarket at 10pm and expect there to be bread. Not that many years ago, if the bread ran out, you would have to wait until the next day.

“They're going to continue to produce bread to meet that demand, otherwise, you will choose another supermarket to go to.”

Kaibosh Food Rescue had recently partnered with growers in the Kāpiti Coast, increasing its produce supply “dramatically”.

A year ago, Kaibosh installed a kitchen into its Petone warehouse, one of its three centres across Wellington.

It meant instead of only being able to sort and redistribute, the Kaibosh team could take any “mushy” food further, by cooking it into stocks, soups, sauces, pickles and crumbles.

Brown bananas turned to fresh banana bread, soft tomatoes were used for pasta sauce and bad bits were cut from any vegetables and used in soups.

Any food that was unable to meet quality standards were fed to animals or used for compost.

Most of its kai was raw ingredients that lasted more than one day, as the food was packed and then delivered to charities the following day after it was received.

Robertson said all rescuers in the Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance had seen an increase in demand since the cost-of-living crisis, with 70% of organisations reporting an “extreme increase”.

Double income families unable to put healthy food on the table and people who had come back for food after years of not needing support were stories Robertson heard all too frequently.

The latest statistics show one in five people in Aotearoa are living in food insecure households, increasing to one in three for Māori and Pasifika children.

“That’s not a great statistic when we produce enough food in New Zealand to feed 40 million people,” Robertson said.

Food insecurity affects a person’s ability to function, to think, to perform tasks and to look after other people, she said.

“It’s really tough out there for a lot of people.”

Bonny Marks, the volunteer manager, had been working at Kaibosh since the start of this year but had been involved in other charities before.

She turned to charity work after going through hard times herself, helping make school lunches for hungry children and helping struggling whānau.

“My heart really goes out to people like that.”

Ange Holtslag, the kitchen coordinator, had cooked for the community for the past 20 years.

She loved being able to cook for a wide range of charities, and be creative with what she made.

“I’m giving the food that would have gone to the chickens to someone that needs it.”

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