By Six
Since the day man emerged from caves more than 200,000 years ago, our basic needs have not changed.
We need very little to survive.
We need food, water, shelter and warmth.
Everything else is optional.
The right to food is a basic human right agreed to by international law.
Yet, while the lines at Aotearoa’s food banks and community meals are longer than a Peter Jackson trilogy, we are dumping hundreds of tons of perfectly good produce in landfills.
Join us as we spend a day with Lola, a food rescue driver, at KiwiHarvest, collecting and distributing unwanted food around Auckland City to charities and food banks, including Waka of Caring.
What started as a project to inject more significance into her life for KiwiHarvest CEO and founder Deborah Manning 12 years ago has rescued more than 13 million kilos of food otherwise destined for landfill.
In our capital city, we hitch a ride with the team at Kiwi Community Assistance. KCA helps communities throughout the Greater Wellington region by rescuing surplus food and household goods and redistributing them to over 77 frontline agencies that work directly with people in need.
Tracy Wellington, KCA CEO and co-founder, says they rescue 1.2 tonnes of food daily on average.
Food which is then distributed to food banks around the city.
An estimated one-third of all the food we produce is lost or wasted between farm and fork each year. That’s 1.3 billion tonnes of food that is never eaten.
Consider not only the volume of waste polluting our countryside but also the lost man hours, consumables and production and delivery costs wasted on dumped food.
Food security is improving all around the world. However, in New Zealand, we are ranked 36th out of 38 OECD nations.
“The more people who speak up about food insecurity, how we shouldn’t have people in this beautiful country going hungry, especially children, the better for us. Together, we can make a difference. If we all take a small step in the right direction, then we will get there together in the end”, says Deborah.
Produced by Magnetic Pictures for TP+
Marketing support from Woolworths NZ
Made with the support of NZ On Air
