Satisfy Food Rescue

A satisfying solution to food waste

In a small North Canterbury town there is a charity working hard to redirect food waste to make a difference. Based in Kaiapoi, Satisfy Food Rescue collects food from local supermarkets, redistributing this to community organisations helping people in need.

Started seven years ago, Satisfy Food Rescue was the vision of Phillipa Hunt, who decided to become part of the food waste solution. She was astounded after discovering that a third of the food that is produced is wasted. Phillipa says “it’s absolutely criminal that so much food is going to waste when there are so many people in the world that are hungry. Much of this change can start at home, it all begins with honouring food and not taking it for granted”. The concept of food rescue takes food that is unable to be sold because it is close to the end of its shelf life, but still perfectly edible and redistributes it to where it’s needed.

The charity employs a team of 5 to manage their day-to-day operation including over 30 volunteers, without whom they could not distribute the amount of food that they do; between 15 and 20 tonnes of food a month which goes to 33 organisations across North Canterbury. Stef Van Meer, Manager at Satisfy says “Post 2020 lockdown our food distribution volume has increased by an enormous 63%. This is helping to meet the increasing need and thankfully we have support from our donors. In addition to our supermarket donors, other local businesses and growers have become more aware of their social responsibility where edible food waste is concerned. The farmer that may once have simply dug back into the paddock produce not suitable to sell, will now make arrangements with charities such as Satisfy to provide that food somewhere it can make a difference.

Satisfy is a hive of activity every day, from regular daily collections by the bright green Satisfy van, pallets of food and crates of produce from growers arriving with even local gardeners dropping in excess grown produce. There’s no donation too small.

In 2020 an incredible project was initiated by the local Oxford & District Lions, through a collaboration that Satisfy is involved in called Food Secure North Canterbury (FSNC). The Lions came with an idea of planting potatoes, to then harvest and donate to Satisfy to distribute. This meant extremely fresh produce was being donated which had a longer shelf life than rescued produce. This partnership will be replicated this year, with a view to doubling the harvest! With land in abundance, FSNC believes there is no limit to what can be achieved for food security and hope to inspire others in the region to join in.

Satisfy has recently partnered with Made North Canterbury and they are excited to see what 2022 brings with this collaboration. With so much great work going on in the North Canterbury region, there’s a big opportunity to get involved. If you would like to know more, visit: satisfyfoodrescue.org.nz

Written by
Stef Van Meer