Lend a helping mandarin!
West Auckland community foundation The Trusts is calling on Kiwis with citrus fruit trees on their properties to pick surplus fruit and donate it to those in need, rather than let it go to waste.
West Auckland community foundation The Trusts is calling on Kiwis with citrus fruit trees on their properties to pick surplus fruit and donate it to those in need, rather than let it go to waste.
Chief executive Allan Pollard says citrus fruits such as oranges, grapefruit, lemons and mandarins are currently in season and food rescue charities like Fair Food can often collect the produce from those willing to pick it.
"Winter, along with Christmas and back to school, are the months with the highest levels of need," he adds. "Thousands of whānau in our communities are facing the perfect storm of seasonal cost pressures for thousands of members of our community."
The Trusts also provide financial support to Fair Food, which aims to provide food for 5,000 vulnerable families and deliver 75,000 meals this winter.
Fair Food supplies over 30 Auckland community groups with over 2.4 million meals per year. It has also opened a 'Conscious Kitchen' to teach community members the principles of upcycling food - taking food matter that would normally be discarded as waste and turning it into something more useful e.g. coffee grounds as fertiliser.
Around a third of all food produced globally is wasted. However, staff at Fair Food receive and each day hand-sort around a tonne of discarded food provided by supermarkets, growers and manufacturers. The surplus produce would otherwise be destined for landfill, generating an estimated 540 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually.
Fair Food chief financial officer Deborah McLaughlin says the poverty gap is widening, with pandemic-driven food shortages, inflation and winter heating costs all impacting already vulnerable families.
She says around 40% of Kiwi households experience food insecurity and 19% of children live in homes where consistency of food supply is a concern.
Pollard says it is critical that organisations like Fair Food be given the support of corporates to allow them to continue their work during peak seasons of need.
Animal rights organization, SAFE says the government needs to maintain the ban on live exports.
New findings from not-for-profit food supply and distribution organization, the New Zealand Food Network (NZFN) have revealed a 42% increase in demand for food support in 2023 compared to 2022.
New data released by LIC and DairyNZ shows New Zealand dairy farmers have achieved the highest six week in-calf rate and lowest notin- calf rate on record.
Christchurch City Council and the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association (CAPA) have signed an agreement which will open more of Canterbury Agricultural Park for public use while helping to provide long-term certainty for the A&P Show.
This year’s Fieldays will feature a Rural Advocacy Hub - bringing together various rural organisations who are advocating for farmers and championing their interests as one team, under one roof, for the first time.
ASB head of rural banking Aidan Gent is encouraging farmers to speak to their banks when they are struggling.
OPINION: The new government has clearly signalled big cuts across the public service.
OPINION: Your canine crusader is not surprised by the recent news that New Zealand plant-based ‘fake meat’ business is in…