May 05, 2020 by: Foodstuffs

Foodstuffs’ brands – New World, PAK’nSAVE, Four Square, Gilmours and Trents – made a commitment in mid-April to donate more than $1 million to help New Zealanders who are facing tough times due to COVID-19.

New Zealand’s charities and community support organisations are facing significant and prolonged demand as a result of COVID-19 and its impact. Our hope is that our donation commitment will enable our charity partners to meet their increased demand and help our most vulnerable get back on their feet as we look to the future.

“Our charity partners around the country are experiencing significant demand as New Zealanders cope with the effects of COVID-19 in their communities and their households,” says Steve Anderson, CEO, Foodstuffs South Island. “By helping charities and community organisations meet New Zealanders’ increased needs, we are hopeful it will help us all collectively recover as we look to rebuild New Zealand together.”

Under this commitment, Foodstuffs have pledged immediate, additional support for more than 30 organisations to-date throughout New Zealand so they can continue to help our most in-need individuals. Among these are our City Missions and food rescue organisations, who look after our communities and ensure they have consistent access to healthy food, our Ronald McDonald Houses who look after and feed families with children in hospital, and Age Concern who look after our elderly neighbors.

New Zealand’s main three City Missions (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch) are now experiencing upwards of triple digit demand and are serving more of the community than they ever did prior to COVID-19. The funding the Missions received is going towards providing more food parcels and making more deliveries to feed in-need individuals and families.

“Food insecurity is a real issue in our communities,” says Chris Quin, CEO, Foodstuffs North Island. “Food banks and food rescue organisations are feeding hundreds more families than they did before COVID-19 and their support will ensure families’ needs are met and will help alleviate some of the hardship they might be experiencing right now.”

“Our supporters continue to make what we do in our community possible,” says Matthew Mark, Christchurch City Missioner. “We are humbled by this generous Foodstuffs donation so we can keep looking after our community. We are still rolling on with our services and with this donation, we’re now able to increase the quantity and speed at which we deliver food parcels to those in need.”

Food rescue organisations are collecting excess and donated food from the supply chain to help food banks and other community groups. Food that is good enough to eat, but not good enough to sell, is collected by food rescue organisations such as KiwiHarvest or Kaibosh, and redistributed to their recipients which includes organisations such as the three City Missions, the Salvation Army, family support service centres, churches and maraes.

“Many of Aotearoa’s communities are already food insecure, which has now been worsened by COVID-19,” says Gavin Findlay, CEO, KiwiHarvest. “The high quality and fresh food we rescue from Foodstuffs stores around the country enable us to fill a gap for so many who are struggling. With Foodstuffs’ additional support at this time, we can assist food insecure communities by supplying produce to frontline food banks and community groups who distribute directly to families and ease the financial pressure they might be experiencing right now.”

The economic impact of COVID-19 is only starting to take shape, but we remain hopeful as we continue to navigate this together.

Total list of charities supported:

ADHB (via Starship)

Age Concern

Auckland City Mission

Canterbury Foodbank

Christchurch City Mission

Do Some Good

Eat My Lunch

Fair Food

Food Rescue Northland

Gizzy Kai Rescue

Good Neighbour

Halo Food Rescue

Just Zilch

Kaibosh

Kaivolution

Kiwi Community Assistance (KCA)

KiwiHarvest

Love Soup

Mangere Budgeting Services

Nelson Kai Rescue

Nourished for Nil

NZSAS Trust

Red Cross – Meals on Wheels

Ronald McDonald Houses in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch

Satisfy Food Rescue

SPCA

Student Volunteer Army

VisionWest

Wai Waste Wairarapa