Food-rescue charity KiwiHarvest may quietly go about its work, but it’s an everyday hero for thousands of New Zealanders who rely on its support.
KiwiHarvest rescues 14 tons of good, nutritious food every working day before it hits landfill and redirects it to charities, including Salvation Army, Kindness Collective, Women’s Refuges, food banks, maraes, and community organisations across New Zealand.
Behind the scenes, helping keep deliveries rolling is JAC Trucks, one of KiwiHarvest’s proud supporters.
Over the past year, KiwiHarvest’s Auckland team has been using a fully electric JAC EV Truck, zipping around the city to collect and deliver rescued food from supermarkets to distribution centres and food manufacturers.
Better still, this good work is being done without producing a single emission.
JAC NZ General Manager, Andrew Craw, said partnering with KiwiHarvest was a natural fit from the very start. Since the JAC EV Truck joined the KiwiHarvest fleet a year ago, it has helped rescue 250 tons of good food, the equivalent of 480,000 meals.
“This food has a retail value of NZD 1.7 million that would otherwise have gone to waste. The other great benefit of our partnership is that we have also prevented 750 tons of CO₂ emissions that would have been released if this food had gone to landfill,” said Craw.
“That’s just the environmental savings from the food itself; add in the truck’s 11,500 kilometres of emission-free travel, and the carbon savings really stack up.”
KiwiHarvest’s longest-serving Food Rescue Driver, Seti, was the lucky team member to receive the JAC EV Truck as her vehicle, and CEO Angela Calver was deeply grateful to JAC for generously loaning their electric truck over the past year.
“When we first explored supporting KiwiHarvest, it just made sense,” added Craw.
“We’re a trucking company committed to providing options to improve sustainability and reduce emissions, and KiwiHarvest is on the ground every day doing the same, preventing waste, reducing carbon emissions and supporting Kiwis in need. It just goes hand-in-hand.”
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