Ten years down the line for Kaibosh
Food charity Kaibosh came from a simple idea 10 years ago. Founder and exchairperson Robyn Langlands reflects on the growth of the charity and the work it’s achieved since then.
How did Kaibosh start?
I was volunteering at Wellington Women’s Refuge when we got a call from Wishbone, which wanted to donate surplus food. It had struggled to find a charity that could pick up the food once its stores had closed for the day. I offered to collect it once a week and drop it off at the Refuge safe house.
There was too much food for the number of women and children staying in the safe house at any given time, so I contacted the Wellington City Mission to ask if they needed donated food. My husband George and I started talking about how many businesses in Wellington must have surplus food to donate. After doing some research and recruiting willing friends and family, we started Kaibosh.
How do you feel looking at Kaibosh now?
Many people have worked tirelessly over the years to grow Kaibosh into a strong, sustainable organisation and I am very proud of the service that Kaibosh provides to our community. I learned so much from being a part of Kaibosh; it has been a privilege to be one of the people who helped it grow and develop into the organisation it is today.
What are your top memories?
I have many wonderful Kaibosh memories. Getting our first grant, hiring our first employee, buying a chiller van, and getting a walk-in cool room helped us to collect and donate more food. Winning the Supreme Award at the Trustpower National Community Awards was also a highlight because we were contacted by lots of groups from around New Zealand that were inspired to set up food-rescue organisations in their own communities.
Spending time with so many generous and compassionate people over the years has also been a heart-warming experience.
Why do you think the organisation has grown so much over the last decade?
Saving food that’s good enough to eat from being thrown away to give to people in need just makes sense. Kaibosh is a simple and compassionate solution to the enormous problem of food waste in our community. People want to work together to achieve zero food poverty and zero food waste and Kaibosh provides them with opportunities to do just that.
Where do you hope Kaibosh will go in the future?
Kaibosh is an importance service for people and the environment, so I hope that it will continue to provide a compassionate solution to the enormous problem of food waste in our community. Busy morning at Wellington Airport. Huge taxi queue, struggled to find an Uber, now stuck in traffic on the way to the office. Oh, and I was sat next to Winston on the flight down from Auckland. He did the crossword.
I’m pretty sure I saw Fraser from #mafsnz walking on Wellington waterfront earlier with hoodie up, trying not to be recognised. Except it was too nice a day for hoods up.
LabourDay holiday in New Zealand. Oriental Bay in Wellington already feeling like summertime.
Not only is Eminem performing in @Wellington_NZ in March, but also (same month) Bryan Ferry, Rufus Wainwright, The Hollies, John Prine, Englebert Humperdinck plus our annual Homegrown festival. Something for all gig tastes!
Just used an @onzo_nz bike to get from Newtown to Cuba St. Most enjoyable, although I wouldn’t want to do it in too much traffic!
Saturday on Cuba St: buskers singing Regina Spektor and playing harmonica, silent protest against Chinese communism and police wrestling a disruptive addict.
That moment when you realise you’ve got the wrong connecting bus and are now heading the slow way into work.