No one working full-time should need a food parcel, but the cost-of-living crisis has pushed more people than ever into emergency support.
Fair Food has been turning mistakes into miracles since 2011. The company’s professional fleet of chilled vehicles has been crucial to reducing food waste at every step in the supply chain. They receive more than 50 tonnes of food monthly across Auckland and share it with families who would otherwise go hungry.
Drivers visit supermarkets across Auckland, including Farro Fresh, Woolworths, Pak N Save, and New World, to pick up edible but unsellable products. The chiller trucks are loaded with fresh food past its best-before date, meat frozen by its use-by date, ambient stock with damaged packaging, and produce that’s just not pretty enough.
Manufacturers call Fair Food whenever there’s an error such as overproduction, a problem with the size of ingredients, or a damaged product or packaging. This could be dumplings, pies, samosas that didn’t seal properly or had the wrong quantities, or sacks of flour torn on the outside.
Fair Food’s onsite Conscious Kitchen packages commercial quantities of food into family-sized portions, and vacuum seals them before free distribution to community organisations. According to MPI, they can even take recalled or mislabeled products if they are food-safe.
With its NPS 2 certification for food manufacturing, Fair Food has adhered to a strict food control plan to ensure the highest health and safety standards. Since all the food is donated and shared for free, donors are covered by the Good Samaritan Law.
“Hunger is an invisible problem, but it is happening everywhere. One in three New Zealanders have less than $500 in savings, making many New Zealanders one flat tyre or unexpected expense away from a food parcel,” said Fair Food General Manager Michelle Blau.
Food banks have observed record requests for help and are stretched beyond their resources to meet this growing demand. Blau was grateful to Fair Food ambassador Reuben Sharples and the Aussie Butcher New Lynn team for stepping up to provide Christmas hams.
Life Health Foods brands Lisa’s Hummus and Naked Kitchen also sponsored cooking classes in Fair Food’s Conscious Kitchen, while Little Island partnered with Fair Food on a Banoffee ice cream.
“We share enough fresh food to provide a week’s worth of groceries to more than 80,000 people yearly. Christmas is our busiest time of need, so anything you aren’t going to use will make a big difference to a local family who would otherwise go hungry on Christmas Day. We aim to share two million meals by the end of this year.”
Over 100 volunteers have continued to prepare food weekly at Fair Food’s Hub on Rosebank Road. They have also welcomed corporate teams, school clubs, church groups, and those who want to give back to the community through volunteering.
Fair Food has also partnered with a network of trusted mental health and social service agencies so that people can receive hands-on support in addition to food parcels.
Recipients include community meals such as Everybody Eats, transitional housing and domestic violence shelters such as MODM Women’s Refuge, and culturally appropriate mental health and social services through the Asylum Seekers Support Trust and other ethnic community organisations.
More than 50 charity partners rely on Fair Food to fill the shelves of their food banks.
“I know from my visit to Fair Food last year what a complex logistical operation it is. It cannot function without food donors, funders, supporters, volunteers and staff members, or the partner organisations that distribute the food in the community. You all play a vital part in supporting Fair Food’s operations,” said Fair Food Patron, the Right Honourable Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro.
To explore food donation opportunities, contact Fair Food. Those outside Auckland can contact Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance members or the New Zealand Food Network.
