Second chance for feijoas
Almost 200kgs of feijoas have been given a second life, and gifted to over 40 organisations around North Canterbury.
Food banks, schools, and community groups have each received a slice of the 183kgs of feijoas that would otherwise have gone to waste.
The CJ’s Plants Drive Thru Plant Farm in Amberely has 300 trees in their feijoa orchard which proves a challenge to manage, as different varieties of feijoas fruit at different times.
The feijoas were picked by Satisfy Food Rescue in a harvest collaboration project aiming to increase access to healthy food and promote zero waste with Food Secure North Canterbury.
Satisfy Food Rescue’s operations coordinator Cameron Crawley said the many hands of volunteers made it ‘‘quick work’’.
‘‘It’s very rewarding to get out into the community to do this kind of work and also connect with our amazing volunteers in addition to ensuring this source of food isn’t wasted,’’ Crawley said.
The harvest collaboration project, focused on building local food resilience, sees the equivalent of 62,400 meals a year distributed to community organisations.
Growers supply fresh produce, harvesters collect it, and processors turn the excess produce
into preserves like jams and frozen stewed fruit if needed to create food with a longer shelf life which then goes out the door to feed those in need.
Fran Cain from Satisfy Food Rescue said foodbanks are ‘‘struggling to meet demand’’.
‘‘One of our local food banks who used to get five people in a week is now sometimes seeing up to five an hour. Where funding isn’t increasing to meet this need you can imagine how tough it is.’’
‘‘The other bonus about receiving fresh fruit like this from CJ’s is that it is able to be given out through our networks to an
increasing number of homeless who are unable to utilise cooking facilities.’’
Jane Hayes from CJ’s Plants said food sustainability was a ‘‘worrying situation’’.
‘‘I think we are all walking around at the moment complaining about the economy but not doing anything to help. These guys (Satisfy Food Rescue)
are already out there, helping the folks that have been in this worrying situation a lot longer than all of us,’’ Hayes said.
The turned around fate of these feijoas’s can benefit people struggling with the rising cost of fresh produce, Krysten Phillips of Food Secure North Canterbury said.
A kilogram of feijoas is upwards of $7.99 in the three
major supermarkets in Canterbury.
‘‘Collaboration is key to community sufficiency,’’ Phillips said.
The harvest collaboration project started in late 2020 when Food Secure North Canterbury funded seed potatoes and fertiliser for the Oxford & District Lions who have since supplied 30,000kgs of vegetables to Satisfy Food Rescue.