In New Zealand today, many people live with ongoing food insecurity because they cannot afford to makes ends meet for a variety of reasons. Many are working full time and still struggle to put food on their table, and it can become a vicious cycle. 40% of New Zealanders experience food insecurity in their home at some point over a 12-month period and 19% of our children live in food insecure homes. That means, every week those homes struggle to provide good, nutritious food which is considered a basic human right.

Nourished for Nil social supermarket aims to help alleviate that. Our store is similar to a small 4 Square with shelves stocked with grocery items to ensure a good variety of nutritious food, just like you would find in a normal supermarket. However, the way the social supermarket works is a bit different. In our supermarket each grocery item is allocated a point value rather than a dollar value, so shoppers can spend their point allocation (depends on family size) but shop just like they would in a normal supermarket.
 

At the point of checkout, food is scanned through and bagged up, and each shopper is then asked to contribute a minimum of $25 towards their shop. This not only helps us to keep the supermarket running, but more than that, it offers dignity to whānau as they are legitimately doing a food shop.
 

For many families throughout New Zealand, putting enough food on the table each day is a struggle. For some, there is often a tough choice that needs to be made – buy food or pay an essential bill. By supporting families with food using this model, we can remove the need to make that choice by freeing up money for other essentials.