Food Rescue Project - Bay Buzz Magazine
Meanwhile in Havelock North, Christina McBeth, who sits on the Napier Foodbank board, is hoping her food rescue project, Nourished for Nil, will be up and running in February, with the objective to help those in need while also reducing food waste.
Inspired by the Free Store, which operates out of a shipping container in downtown Wellington, and using the prototype of Just Zilch in Palmerston North, McBeth, her co-pilot Louise Saurin and their volunteer team will be sourcing leftovers from cafes, caterers, bakeries, supermarket perishables, and surplus or imperfect produce, to stock the shelves of their central Hastings ‘shop’.
They plan to open fi ve evenings a week, 5-7.30pm initially, and will welcome anyone, no judgement, says McBeth. For no one is immune from times of hardship, however they present.
“Food is premium, but we’re not taking away from existing initiatives,” she assures me, “we’re just creating another avenue.”
While premises and funding options are still in the pipeline, support so far has been “huge”, with Havelock North eateries, for example, overwhelmingly positive in their response. McBeth is quietly confident Nourished for Nil will have “a snowball effect”. “It’s been a very successful model, both around New Zealand and overseas; there’s so much potential.
“I know food hand-outs are not the answer to poverty, but it does create some security around the most vulnerable in our society: the children. If it means parents aren’t so stressed and can feed their kids, then we will have made a small dent.”
Published in Bay Buzz magazine