Kai 4 All feeding the community
Charity honoured for Covid response
ATe Awamutu-based community distribution charity has been recognised by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins for its contribution during the Covid-19 pandemic.
During March last year, Kāpiti Kohatu-Cleft of the Rock Trust was given the opportunity to receive $10,000 from the Ministry of Social Development, explicitly tagged for households in the Waipā district who were Covid-19 positive.
From March to April 2022, in collaboration with Kainga Aroha Community House, as the official Community Connector, Kai 4 All was instrumental in providing over 200 Covid-19 positive households.
During the emergency response from 2020 scaling down to May 2023, Operation Kai 4 All received a Covid19 Response Recognition Award, Te Tohu Urupare Kowheori-19 from Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, in recognition of its service in support of the national Covid-19 response Hei whakanui i ta koutou mahi tautoko I te urupare a-motu ki te Kowheori19.
“Kai 4 All is very grateful. We weren’t aware they were giving out awards, and it came at a time when everyone was so down and this came on the back of that. This award is for all the people who have volunteered, came to receive food or those who have donated produce to us. It is their reward and their recognition,” says Tuhaio Halling, of Kai 4 All.
Operation Kai 4 All is a voluntary community distribution charity that distributes free donated food resources to and for all families within the Waipā community. It operates once a week every Thursday from the Te Awamutu Scout Hall for volunteers from 8.30am, and is open at 10am to distribute to the community from 10am to 10.30am.
The inspiration for Kai 4 All started because people pre-Covid were economically struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table.
“Kai 4 All’s work means that people in the community’s needs are met, as the struggle is real. It was real well before Covid-19, however, the pandemic . . . showed the magnitude of people in need,” says Halling.
Kane Rangitonga, the manager of Kainga Aroha in Te Awamutu, says, “Kai 4 All makes it easier for us to meet the needs of the community. We know everyone is struggling, people always think it is just the poor who are struggling. I say, how do you know who the poor people are because I know a lot of people who used to be rich that are now poor..
“A lot of people we are working with at the moment are people who thought they would have their houses for the rest of their lives, or their jobs. After Covid, they found out they did not have either. It is groups like Kai 4 All that are helping in our community,” adds Rangitonga.
Kai 4 All spoke to the community to see if this is something they still want to see and Halling says there was a resounding yes.
However, Halling has now found a lot of people struggling have gone underground, as Halling says people do not trust any longer.
“They only come to where we are because they know they can come and collect what they need and know they are cared for.
“The saddest thing we are finding is that 20 per cent of the people who come to Kai 4 All are the elderly. They come every Thursday and are incredibly grateful, they also want to help us at the same time and give back,” says Halling.
“The same people who have been coming since the beginning are still coming, the thing is they are getting older. Now they struggle to get out of their car. Now we are thinking about if we go mobile or organise a drive-through.”
Another group of people who come are new families who have come into the area of Te Awamutu, and this is the food that “tides them over” till their next pay.
Kai 4 All first opened its doors two weeks before the start of the Christmas holiday season in 2019. They initially and physically started distributing free complimentary kai three times a week outside under the large shelter of the former Bunnings Building in Te Awamutu.
During this time, the trustees and kai mahi ringa wera (volunteers) made an executive strategic decision to quickly plan and prepare to follow the Covid-19 national and health responses.
In doing so, they continued to distribute indoors by utilising the Te Awamutu Scout Hall, where community whānau who were experiencing hardship in making ends meet were able to access free kai service, securely and safely through their community operations.
To date, this has become their main distribution outpost, where their operations are carbon-free.
“We are always looking to innovate. One way was through minimising our carbon footprint, which is important to one of our volunteers.
“We have people in our organisation that have strengths in various different areas.
“We may have only five leadership-based volunteers, but
they all have a specific strength,” says Halling.
From vast amounts of disposable brown bags being used at first from 2020 to late 2021, by 2022, with the mandates easing off, they introduced their own simple recycling methods.
Kai 4 All asked all whānau accessing our Kai 4 All services to BYO empty shopping bags to take a full shopping bag home.
Over the past three years, their primary food donor has come from Kāinga Ora who collects food resources from various main food suppliers, then delivers to Kai 4 All to redistribute on Thursdays.
All other complimentary food resources come from a wide variety of kind community donors, who recognise and are aware of Operation Kai 4 All’s community environmentally steward presence.
They receive donations from Kaivolution, which is a wellestablished distributor operating out of Hamilton. From late 2021 to early 2022, local orchard and vegetable growers to home garden growers within the Waipā also donated.
“There were a lot of elderly Pirongia growers, who are like family to us, and they would connect with us and ask how they would like it down — through bringing in pickers who were masked up. There was a lot of organising behind the scenes,” says Halling.
Other places that donate include the Waikeria Prison Growers, often suppliers from the growers in
hakune, Bombay and a few local vegetable produce outlets have in 2023 contributed.
“Waikeria Prison, through Rangitonga at Kainga Aroha, they realised they couldn’t move the volume of food like we were able to. Their intervention, in terms of the social aspect, is really important within the community. They kindly hand food over to us on a Thursday.
“We were three days a week, but
we realised it wasn’t viable due to the lack of volunteers. Secondly, we didn’t want our volunteers to get burnout,” says Halling.
During 2021, Operation Kai 4 All recognised the charity needed to reach more households who were in emergency situations.
For this reason, they created and invested in operating an 0800 Kai 4 All Free Calling Emergency Food Service.
This free service number and its purpose is to allow first-time callers to receive a one-off-only kai box, where they have collaborated with a supermarket in Te Awamutu, which picks, packs, and delivers directly to the households.
In October 2021, Thomas Lloyd and the late Elizabeth Lloyd approached Rob Blackett Motors Ltd, and this local motor vehicle community company kindly donated a community vehicle for Operations Kai 4 All, with the necessary signwriting advertising his company as one of the sponsor community partners.
After their recognition and since June 2022, students from the Patricia Avenue School have been involved, along with Waipā Network, Fresh Choice and Rob Motors Ltd.
“Patricia Avenue School loves to have their children be involved with the public and the community. It is almost like we have this interesting family that has developed. To the students and teachers who come they dig in and help out,” says Halling.
Also, the fantastic community social community houses in Cambridge and Te Awamutu ki Waipā, who have been diligent community stewards, in responding to our Operation Kai 4 All distribution and its operation kaupapa, during the Covid19 Emergency Health and National Response Kaupapa in Te Awamutu ki Waipā.
Therefore, although there are other whānau who were with Kai 4
All, processing the loss of a loved one, they continue to love and honour their Kai Mahi stewardship.
As recent as 2022 to 2023, Kai 4 All honours three former, muchloved whānau kai mahi, lead volunteers. “Though they have passed away, they each leave us with a spirit of community legacy and served wholeheartedly valuing and contributing in a heart of community Aroha (love), rangimarie (compassion) and community spirit purpose,” says Halling. “Dion Anderson (Halling’s son) was a visionary and a major inspiration. He worked on social media for Kai 4 All, and as he was on dialysis he would work while he was on the machine. He would do all the groundwork for Kai 4 All,” says Halling.
Elizabeth Lloyd, (kai mahi lead response) 2020 – March 2022.
Terry Greenfields, (kai mahi lead response) 2020 – June 2022.
Dion Anderson, (Kai 4 All creator and logo designer, kai mahi lead response) 2020 – May 2023.
“This work has touched the community in a lot of ways, it has filled bellies and put smiles on people’s faces. My late wife and I began working with them and helping them get it up and running,” says Thomas Lloyd who is involved with Kai 4 All and the Steps to Freedom Ministry.
“I remember my wife and Dion for the work they have done for Kai 4 All. Dion was a goer and a hardworking man, he showed his love to this community, that he came to love. He found something that he loved doing, and that’s what you want to do in life, find what you love.”
“They were all committed and had skills in different areas, and they gave us the foundations of what Kai 4 All needs to continue to carry on,” says Halling. She adds, “In the meantime, we are looking to enjoy the award, it has been awesome to have this business and networks around supporting us.”
Kia 4 All is hoping to plan and access some kind of philanthropic grant to expand their community services, especially since they’ve been in operation since 2020.
“Wherever you go in life you have got to find something, and if you help the community like Kai 4 All has done, you can bring change in some small way. Regardless of culture, religion or background, this hall has touched this community. And we are so thankful and blessed to know that it warms your heart to come here and get fed,” says Lloyd.
Rangitonga says, “Kai 4 All helps us do what we do, giving kai out. My job is to collect kai from anywhere and everywhere and take it here to give it out to the community. That has been our relationship since we started. Dion was a big part of that, I could see the love and passion that he had for doing what he did.”