Lynsey Abbott organised a pātaka kai community pantry to feed the community in Flaxmere. Photo / Paul Taylor
Lynsey Abbott organised a pātaka kai community pantry to feed the community in Flaxmere. Photo / Paul Taylor
Four Hawke's Bay pātaka kai open pantries have been providing Hawke's Bay communities with free food.
Pātaka kai, a resident-led initiative, has a range of open pantries to serve communities around New Zealand.
The term pātaka kai means storehouse or pantry in Māori.
According to Pātaka Kai Open Street Pantries, there are 117 pātaka kai in New Zealand and four throughout Hawke's Bay. The Hawke's Bay pātaka are in Flaxmere, Maraenui, EIT in Taradale, and Takapau.
"The pātaka kai is from the very old days. You would find a pātaka at the Marae, that's what I remember as a child," Lynsey Abbott, organiser of the pātaka kai in Flaxmere, said.
Individual people or organisations can set up the pantries which are stocked by anyone in the community who wants to donate.
Abbott started the pātaka kai on Livingstone Rd in Flaxmere with her husband as part of her community organisation One Voice about a year and a half ago. The pantry has since serviced more than 500 people a week throughout Hawke's Bay from Wairoa to Porangahau, she said.
The Flaxmere pātaka stocks food and personal items for the community. Photo / Supplied
"The rising price of rent, mortgages, petrol and food is impacting our families. This is a need not a want for many people," she said.
The pātaka was originally "built for the children so they knew if they needed a kai, they could always come to the pātaka" but now services anyone in the community.
Abbott said she has seen grandparents raising their grandchildren on the superannuation benefit, families on the benefit, working families who can't always afford enough food for their families, children, people who have been laid off from their jobs, and backpackers trying to find work make use of the pātaka.
Abbott and her husband fill the pantry before going to work and it is usually empty within an hour or two, she said.
"Members from the community also fill the pantry when they like and New World Flaxmere donate food which would otherwise be thrown out on Tuesdays and Thursdays," said Abbott.
"It's definitely a community spirit thing."
The pantry is open 24/7. Anyone can come from the community and take what they need at any time.
"It's about making sure that someone has food they can take when they need it.
"Not being able to provide enough kai for your family is a huge cause of stress in people's lives," Abbott said.
Pātaka kai pantry in Maraenui, Napier. Photo / Supplied
The pātaka stocks non-perishable goods, fresh food and cleaning and personal products. The couple also has a chest freezer for frozen food and dairy products which families can collect after 5.30pm.
Abbott said she had not had any issues with people abusing the pātaka but knew others who had faced such issues.
Piri Taurima is the organiser of the Mason Ave pātaka kai in Maraenui, Napier which opened in November 2019.
The pātaka stocks fresh and canned food as well as personal items such as nappies and sanitary products supplied by locals and Napier Food Rescue.
"Food insecurity is high right now in our community and nationwide, so by setting up a pātaka kai here in Maraenui I can hopefully help meet that need for some," Taurima said.
She said once the pātaka is filled people usually come to select items within 10 minutes.
In addition to the 24/7 pātaka, for the past two Christmases, Abbott has organised a Christmas Eve event where dinners and gifts are given out to families in the community at the pātaka and Hastings Hospital children's ward. More than 380 people attended last Christmas, Abbott said.
Taurima was also inspired to take similar action through her pātaka work, organising a community Christmas hamper drive.
