Tawa volunteers give back to community

Waste not, want not is the mantra for a group who are making the most of other people’s leftovers.

Kiwi Community Assistance (KCA) is a registered charity based in Tawa which distributes food, clothing and household items to local schools, foodbanks and other Wellington charities.

It was founded five years ago by a Tawa couple and is run entirely by volunteers.

Co-founder Tracy Wellington said their work minimised waste and sought out inventive ways of using food.

‘‘We’ve got hundreds of icecream containers to stew all of the fruit and preserve it. We push it out with a bag of flour and margarine and there’s your fruit crumble for the weekend.’’

This year KCA has collected more than 50 tonnes of food – and distrib- uted an estimated 117,000 meals.

The charity, which has been growing strong since 2011, now needs more people power to keep on top of the workload.

‘‘We first started shipping stock to Johnsonville with one agency. We now work with 50 different agencies and we have a waiting list. We’ve got more food suppliers and agencies that want to come on-board but we don’t have the man power.’’

Wellington said KCA needed up to 30 more volunteers.

Locals collect donations from drop-off points throughout the region from companies such as Foodstuffs, Whittaker’s and Moore Wilson’s Porirua.

They organise and store the produce and goods for social agencies including Birthright Wellington, Johnsonville Foodbank and the Wellington Night Shelter, which distribute directly to their clients.