Our speaker this week was Susie Townshend from “Kiwiharvest’, a national food charity which collects good food which would otherwise be dumped and wasted, for redistribution to organisations that will distribute it to people in need.Last month Rotary undertook a “Random Act of Kindness ‘and raised goods to the value of over $5,000.00 for their distribution. We are currently looking for other ways to support such a good cause.
Our contribution was 1,606 kgs of product, with an estimated value of $5,500. It will be given to agencies/organisations such as Salvation Army, Presbyterian Support, St Vincent De Paul, Moana House, Womens Refuge, Age Concern, PACT Apartments.
Susie has a background in chef and logistics in the NZ Army, followed by a degree in Applied Management from Otago University.
As well as her involvement in Kiwiharvest, she is a busy mum with 2 children, and volunteers for Land Search and Rescue. Impressive indeed!
In 2004 the food rescue concept was originally brought to Dunedin by Deborah Manning as “Foodshare”.
In 2015 “Foodshare merged with” Kiwiharvest’ and the new organisation started. Now it has many branches around NZ and is working to increase its reach to all parts of NZ. Funding has been committed to further its aims by MSD. Funding also comes from corporations such as the Goodman Foundation, Rabo Bank, Jasmine Foundation, Countdown, Subway, Southern Trust, DCC, Lotteries.
Their aim is to rescue food that is not quite good enough for various reasons to sell, but is still good enough to eat. Food is collected in Dunedin from most of the supermarkets, local cafes, Foodstuffs, and from various food manufactures
Some interesting statistics were presented by Susie.
* NZ generates 103,000 tonnes of food waste per year. 60% of this is estimated still to be edible.
* 40% of NZers experience “food poverty”. This is defined as not having access to good quality food.
* 305,000 kiwi children are living in poverty.
* Food rescued in Dunedin is 172,000 kgs last year,
* Food redistributed 158,000 kgs last year,
* 120.00 kgs collected so far this year.
* 120.00 kgs collected so far this year.
* Distrubted YTD 116,341 kgs
Volunteers are welcomed for driving and sorting food. If you are interested contact Susie at Susie.townshend@kiwiharvest.org.nz
