The big taste has to get through
Queenstown’s KiwiHarvest crew reckon they’ve called in one too many favours from their friendly neighbourhood mechanic, Torque Automative, and it’s time for their one refrigerated delivery truck, ‘Lily’ (Number plate ‘LLY’) - now over the hill, to retire there herself for shorter runs in Wānaka.
Faced with constant battles to raise funds, and more recently to find a new home, KiwiHarvest’s vital link to the district’s community food chain – Lily, now needs replacing after clocking more than 220,000kms around the Queenstown Lakes, Central Otago region since 2020.
“She’s definitely the hardest working member of our wee team,” KiwiHarvest Queenstown branch manager Gary Hough says. With a huge increase in demand for rescued food amid rapidly rising living costs, last year Lily carted a record 130,000 kilos of food – a 50% increase on the previous year.
Unfortunately, the faithful little Toyota Toyoace is aging fast. “She’s pretty rammed most days with daily trips all over the Whakatipu and down as far as Ettrick to pick up apples, as well as weekly trips over the Crown Range,” Hough says.
With seemingly less surplus food coming from supermarkets and cafés as they try to lessen food waste, Hough says they’re having to drive further to rescue food that would otherwise go to landfill. More than 30% of all food produced in New Zealand ends up in the landfill uneaten.
“It’s brilliant that people struggling get the nutrition and food they need through us,” he says.
It was therefore super exciting to be named among the five finalists in this year’s Impact100 grant funding applications, for which the winners will be announced at an awards gala on 25 October. If successful, KiwiHarvest Queenstown will use the $100,000 grant – one of two, to purchase a good, second-hand truck for about $60,000, with the other $40,000 covering operational road costs, fuel and insurance.
KiwiHarvest is now feeding more than 800 people a week around the district and seven key help agencies locally now heavily rely on it to supply food. “We’ve become a vital source of food for the likes of Baskets of Blessing, Salvation Army, Te Whare Hauora ki Tahuna, Whakatipu Youth Trust, Queenstown Playcentre and Happiness House,” Hough says.
The food KiwiHarvest rescues and delivers through Lily puts meals on the table for food banks, help hampers, families and kids needing a safe space to eat, and parents needing a helping hand.
“We’re now supporting such a wide range covering all cultures in the community ensuring people that need help with food can feel comfortable to go and get that from these organisations.”
Food surplus donations were down during winter and while they’ve picked up a bit, they’re still not back to autumn levels.
“That one little truck does 95% of our deliveries, with only our e-bike for café deliveries, so Lily gets quite a hammering, and her parts are now needing replaced due to wear and tear,” he says.
“We’ve had to call in too many favours from the local mechanic. If we miss a day those charities don’t get their food that week and it ends up in the landfill when it’s greatly needed elsewhere.”
The community recently stepped into help with KiwiHarvest facing funding troubles, after the government cut back funding for the sector. Locals raised more than $40,000 in just over a month, and also offered in-kind help. The charity has also sorted new temporary premises, at Five Mile, ahead of a permanent home in the planned Whakatipu Community Hub.
“We’ve been humbled and blown away by the community support. If we’re successful with a replacement truck, we’ll be in such a great, sustainable position to serve the community for many years to come.”
As for Lily, she’ll be keeping a wheel in the works doing shorter, twice weekly collections in Wānaka where KiwiHarvest’s eight local volunteers there currently use their own vehicles at their cost to rescue and deliver surplus food from supermarkets. Here too that food is a vital resource for Food For Love, Kahu Youth Trust and the Community Food Bank.
