Foodbank Aotearoa New Zealand

It’s an early Monday morning in Christchurch , a clear, frosty -2C and Flo is spooning out steaming hot bowls of porridge. Others take hot mince on toast, fried eggs - the 20 people at the Margaret Mahy Playground shelter swells to around 50, the cold breath from their mouths steaming into the cold air.

Janice, the co-founder of Foodbank Aotearoa New Zealand gets hugs of thanks over porridge bowls. This is where the food for today’s breakfast has come from, and this is one of Foodbank Aotearoa New Zealand (FBANZ) smallest agencies. FBANZ is one of New Zealand’s largest providers of food relief to those in need and at risk. 640 tonnes of food redistributed in the first six months of 2023 – that’s a lot of food – donated from local supermarkets, farmers, manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors as well as bought-in by the organisation just to meet the need.

What started as a vision, developed into a first food pickup of around 15 sandwiches from the Wishbone Café in Jelly Park, to around 5 million kgs later - Foodbank Aotearoa New Zealand has been quite a journey.

As CEO and co-founder John Milligan says: “For the past 8 years we have been walking towards a purpose. I say purpose, because purpose is a project that takes years - our purpose was to build a team with the same purpose in mind and at the heart of this idea is that the organisation’s purpose comes first.

What Janice and I created in FBANZ is the embodiment of what we care about – the 1000’s of those in need."