NGO rescuing quality kai from being thrown out

More than a year after Kai Rescue was launched in Nelson to divert perfectly edible food from ending up in landfill, more than 75 tonnes of food has been given to those in need.

The organisation collects unwanted and surplus food and redistributes it to over 40 charity organisations and groups.

Kai Rescue driver Jenny Hol- den starts each weekday morning collecting food from Countdown in St Vincent Street before visiting a number of other outlets.

Her daily haul often includes, fruit, vegetables, bread, dairy products and sometimes other items like frozen food or baked goods.

Kai Rescue’s first collection was at the end of March 2017, and in the year since then, more than 75 tonnes of food had been diverted from landfill.

During the first week alone, Holden said they collected about a tonne of food. Some nearing its best before date, it was described as food that was good enough to eat, but not good enough to sell.

Her days often involved doing lots of random pick ups from other food producers in the region.

‘‘We still suspect there is quite a bit of food out in the community that gets dumped that could be eaten by charity groups.’’

Ecoland manager Karen Driver said she thought the organisation was collecting a ‘‘really small proportion’’ of edible food waste and there was the potential to collect much more.

But the main issue for the organisation was funding, Driver said it cost more than $100,000 each year to keep it running.

It had to purchase a van with a chiller to transport the food, petrol was needed for the daily collection run and a coolstore had been built to store food in the Kai Rescue premises at Ecoland on Vanguard St.

Rent and part-time staff wages had to also be factored in.

‘‘I would love to push it more, so it would be really good to get some business sponsorship.

‘‘We are doing a really important community service here.’’

Anyone interested in donating goods, money or volunteer time to Kai Rescue can contact the shop on 03 545 9176 or email info@nec.org.nz.