Words by Anita Body, Images supplied by Meat the Need
Giving a little is reaping big rewards thanks to a farming initiative aimed at preventing New Zealanders from going hungry.
Meat the Need was launched during the first 2020 lockdown and sees generous livestock donations from farmers turned into mince meat which is then donated to food banks across the country. Since then, over 760,000 meals of mince have been provided to families in need.
The charity works on the premise that if we all give a little, it collectively amounts to a lot. The last couple of years have been challenging for many New Zealand families, and Meat the Need is a simple way farmers can help by donating a little bit of what they produce when they can. There are 26 million animals processed each year in New Zealand and Meat the Need estimate just 5,000 animal donations are needed to prevent New Zealanders from going hungry. That’s just 0.019% of the country’s overall meat production.
In addition to Meat the Need, another initiative, Feed Out, has also been established with donated milk going to food banks across Waikato and the Central Plateau. Feed Out has seen 92,000 milk meals donated so far and plans are underway to extend this across the country. Currently, Meat the Need and Feed Out supply mince and milk to more than 80 food banks, reaching large numbers of families in need.
Ruralco is proud to support this fantastic cause. “Meat the Need is a really simple way to give back and support others in our communities. It’s a great idea which has gone from strength to strength thanks to the hard-working team behind the initiative, and the wonderful generosity of farmers,” says Ruralco Group CEO, Robert Sharkie. “Knowing that your donated livestock will help feed families both close to home and further afield, is a great way to show that community-minded spirit farmers are renowned for.”
There are many examples of farmers jumping at the chance to be involved in Meat the Need from around the country. One such farmer is Dan Schat, a dairy farmer in Darfield, Canterbury. His farm is in its fourth season where he produces A2 milk from 360 cows.
When he was younger, he wanted to be all sorts of things but nearing the end of high school he decided on his path to be a farmer. Growing up he used to help out on his parents’ farms and more recently the roles have been reversed, with them helping Dan set up his own farming operation.
Dan first heard about Meat the Need as it got off the ground a couple of years ago and was interested in what it was trying to achieve. He had a few beef cattle set aside on the farm for the family and when he realised he had a surplus amount of beef, he decided to donate one of the cattle to Meat the Need. That was the beginning of his donation journey.
“Meat the Need is a good option when it comes to choosing what charity to support. For some people, it's difficult to give time or money to charities, and so the option of donating livestock to Meat the Need works really well. We liked the idea of donating quietly - in that we can send our animal away and you know it goes straight to families who need it,” he says.
“It also offers the chance to donate as much or as little as you want, and you know your livestock donation goes 100% to food banks. It’s a way to help people directly by giving families a helping hand, especially as mince may not be affordable for some people.”
In addition to donating livestock, Dan has also signed up with the Meat the Needs “Champion” programme which sees him volunteer in the Darfield area, helping spread awareness about the charity and boosting donations. He wanted to help the charity in other ways and saw this recently launched programme as an opportunity to further support the cause.
“Meat the Need is a charity that shows how the agricultural industry can help people across New Zealand. Sometimes farmers get a bad rap but Meat the Need helps to show the great work that farmers are doing to help our communities.”
To those who might not have thought about signing up, Dan says it’s a simple process. “For us, we got in touch with our Silver Fern Farms Rep and said what we wanted to donate. It's good for farmers to know that if you want to donate beef, let’s say, and the animal is worth more than the specified donation amount, you get paid that surplus. Also, when you give to Meat the Need you can put that on the books as a charity donation.”
Further south, Clinton farmers Lyndon and Jade McNab saw Meat the Need as great way to fulfil their desire to help others with good food. As well as farming 2000ha on Lochindorb Farm with 6000 ewes and 700 beef cows, they also own and run a café.
“We know how privileged we are when it comes to the food we provide to our family. Since our three kids have been at school, we’ve seen how hard some other families have it and the food that some kids go without. For a while before Meat the Need launched, we were thinking about how we could help more people in our community. Other than just our neighbours, we wanted to help support more people in having nutritious animal protein. After thinking for a while on what we could do, Meat the Need was launched and that was the perfect platform for us to help support more people. Straight away we rang up our local rep for Silver Fern Farms, signed up to donate, and we’ve been donating since.”
“Because animal protein is our business, this was the perfect avenue for us to support others. It just felt right. We have plenty of our own meat in the freezer, but when we walk past meat in the supermarket, we see how expensive it is, which we know can be really unaffordable for some families.”
The McNab’s see food as one of those things that is easily relatable for everybody. “Everyone likes and wants good food. We really feel for and can understand what it might be like for other parents if they couldn’t provide their kids good food.”
Meat the Need is a movement which also helps to increase positive stories about farmers. “This is a farmer driven initiative and Meat the Need highlights our industry showing what we are contributing. We’re not doing this because it looks good, but it’s a happy by-product.”
The couple say signing up to the scheme was a “no-brainer”. “If each one of us makes a small contribution, together we can make a big difference. If you’re thinking of donating to a charity, this is a really good way to do it, because the meat you donate is given directly to food banks. We hope that if we were in the position where we were without food, that there would be people out there to support us. We know we’re privileged, and we also know not everyone is. You can’t choose the situation you’re given when you’re born into this world. And so, Meat the Need helps to address some of those inequalities.”
It’s a sentiment shared by the first farmer to donate to Meat the Need, Tom Irving. “In the world right now there’s heaps of people that are having a hard time. With Covid and everything - losing jobs, lock downs etc - it’s now harder for some people to put good food on the table.”
The Hororata dairy farmer has 176ha over three farms, with 600 Friesian Jersey cross-bred cows. “Apparently, I was one of the first people to donate. I have known Wayne (Langford, founder and Meat the Need General Manager) since Lincoln University days and when he said Meat the Need was about to launch, I mentioned I already had an animal I wanted to donate. The rest is history really - that was my first donation and I have donated since.”
“Farmers can chip in by donating livestock in a way that’s really easy to do. If farmers spare just one animal for Meat the Need, then it can make a big difference to heaps of people. What we can give is a good form of protein and everyone needs something good to fill them up.”
Tom’s advice to any farmers thinking about donating livestock, is to “just get on with it.” It’s a simple process – either visit their website or talk to a Silver Fern Farms Rep.
How to donate
To donate, it’s really simple. You can get in touch with your Silver Fern Farms Rep, or head to the donation page on the Meat the Need website. And of course, if you have any questions or want to know more, you can get in touch with their team on 0800 632 884, or visit meattheneed.org.
From left - Clinton farmers Lydon & Jade McNab saw Meat the Need as great way to fulfil their desire to help others with good food; Darfield farmers Dan & Amanda Schat saw Meat the Need was a good option when it came to choosing what charity to support; and Tom Irving, the first farmer to donate to Meat the Need with Co-founder Wayne Langford.
Kai for Kids Serves up a Healthy Lunch to Mid Canterbury Children
Words and photos supplied by Kai for Kids
Above - Lunch time at Hampstead School – great to see smiling, happy faces – and no-one misses out.
School lunches have dramatically changed over the past two decades. With a rise in ultra-processed foods, think packets of chips and biscuits, becoming available as cheaper options to fresh produce, at the same time New Zealand has experienced a rise in food insecurity for households. Around one in five children in New Zealand live in households that struggle to put enough good-quality food on the table. In some communities, 40% of parents run out of food sometimes or often.
Mid Canterbury is a stunning producer of high-quality food but sadly, not all of the local children are able to access this food every day. Founder of the Kai for Kids Charitable Trust and arable farmer, Jo Taylor, wanted to change the food landscape for the children of Mid Canterbury.
“As a mother of 5 I was shocked to see a child at one of our primary schools with nothing other than a packet of rice crackers for their food for the entire day. Talking to other parents, school teachers, and principals I found out that this is happening in every school, kindergarten and preschool where children might be bringing little or no food for their day. We all know when we are hungry that we find it hard to focus. Imagine how hard it is for a child to have little food during a busy school day.”
Research indicates that reducing food insecurity for children and young people:
- improves their wellbeing
- supports child development and learning
- improves learners’ levels of concentration, behaviour and school achievement
- reduces financial hardship amongst families and whānau
- addresses barriers to children’s participation in education and promotes attendance at school
- boosts learners’ overall health.
Local school Principals whose schools are part of the healthy school lunch programme delivered by Kai for Kids all comment that the programme is starting to achieve these objectives – children are coming to school because they are getting fed, helping attendance rates, and the teachers are reporting that children are calmer in the afternoons after lunch.
The Kai for Kids Charitable Trust was established in April 2020 by Jo and fellow Trustees, Michelle Parkin, Jaz McCully and Fiona Ward, with a pilot lunch programme at Ashburton Netherby School funded by Advance Ashburton Community Foundation. This pilot was successful and as the Kai for Kids team learned how to produce healthy food at scale, they have been able to extend the schools and children they serve to include Hampstead School, Chertsey School, Merle Leask Kindergarten, Ashburton Borough School, Hinds School and Allenton School. Kai for Kids also supports the Homework Club at the Ashburton Library with afternoon tea and has supplied over 200 family meals to families isolating with Covid 19 in the last month. Kai for Kids now produces over 600 school lunches every day. In 2021 the team, consisting of 8 part-time staff and 10 volunteers, made over 100,000 lunches.
Kai for Kids has funding for Netherby and Hampstead Schools through the Ka Ora, Ka Ako Programme, however community support is constantly required to fund the other schools and children with a healthy lunch. Thanks to organisations such a Meat the Need this has made the job of feeding hungry children in Mid Canterbury that much easier. Meat the Need provide Kai for Kids with a supply of high quality mince sourced from the donation of animals from local farmers. “We are just so appreciative of this support,” says Jo Taylor, “as it enables us to quickly respond to the referrals we are getting from our community for help with children who are hungry.”
Kai for Kids is also hoping to make a longer-term difference to food security for the children in Mid Canterbury. There are plans underway to start two vegetable gardens at a scale that can supply fresh food to the lunch programme as well as provide a learning environment for the children and their families around growing their own food. The idea is to also work with local farmers to showcase the food that is grown locally and make that connection between farming and our food supply. A pilot cooking programme will also start in Term 2 for families to go back to basics and learn how to budget, prepare and cook food for families.
Kai for Kids would like to thank Wayne and the team at Meat the Need as well as the farmers who have donated both directly to Meat the Need and to Kai for Kids. As Jo Taylor comments, “Kai for Kids cannot do what we do without the huge support we receive from our community, our volunteers and partnerships. Together we are making a real difference.”
From left - Karina and Chelsea making hamburger patties from scratch with mince from Meat The Need. Kai for Kids operates out of the kitchen at the Ashburton Raceway with new ovens funded by the Lion Foundation and AACF; Every lunch is packed full of vegetables, protein and grains to ensure a good range of macro and micronutrients are eaten each day. RMF Silva support their staff to volunteer once a week. It was Nerida Jemmet’s turn to help pack lunches; Kai for Kids aims to be a zero waste programme and will reintroduce reusable lunch boxes after the Covid wave, thanks to support from Mega Mitre 10 Ashburton.