KiwiHarvest has rescued and distributed over $100 million of food.
This article was prepared by KiwiHarvest and is being published by the New Zealand Herald as advertorial.
From a car boot in Dunedin in 2012 to every corner of New Zealand, KiwiHarvest has saved and distributed over $100 million of food. Now, they’ve set their sights on stamping out hunger in Aotearoa altogether.
When Deborah Manning decided to tackle the impossible task of a food-secure country, she could never have imagined what she was about to build. Fast forward to 2025, her small operation now boasts an army of incredible volunteers, charities, and vibrant green trucks. The KiwiHarvest team jump in every day to rescue good food before it goes to waste. This year alone they rescued 3 million kilograms of food – their biggest yet. Since KiwiHarvest started in 2012 they have fed hundreds of thousands of hungry families, saving New Zealand from over 40 million kilograms of Co2-eq emissions.
However, with food prices constantly increasing, a mammoth 500,000 Kiwis can no longer put food on the table every night. This is especially devastating for kids as hunger affects every part of their lives. Without food they don’t have the energy to play, focus, or grow. The effects of this can then follow them for the rest of their lives. Giving kids access to healthy, nutritious food, gives them a fighting chance to learn and thrive.
The number of Kiwi kids without food has reached its highest in a decade. Now, over a quarter of New Zealand children are experiencing hunger. Research shows that hungry kids reach educational milestones up to four years later than their peers. The rise in food poverty is evident in our battered education system, overflowing social programmes, and increased reports of behavioural problems.
An organisation like KiwiHarvest is not just fighting on the frontlines, they’re grappling in back rooms for policy change. The chain reaction from food waste extends farther than most of us can comprehend. Not only is food wasted, but land, energy, labour, water and capital are all wasted too. A glaring decimation of time, money and resources that should go towards improving our country.
Despite all this, KiwiHarvest has made a fully food-secure New Zealand feel possible. Through years of battling the food waste mountain, they’ve managed to turn the cost of one small coffee into an entire day of food for four people. For only $5, they can feed a family of four people three healthy, nutritious meals.
A happy, healthy, strong New Zealand is possible, but not without the collective spirit of Kiwis. It only takes two minutes to donate but those two minutes can change hunger in our country.
You can donate $5 now to feed a family for a day, and join a network of incredible people making change happen.