Let’s Eat: Access to Fresh Food in Low Income Areas

My Story:

I have always been passionate about food. In recent years I’ve developed a keen curiosity for fresh, local and sustainable produce and how to make such options accessible to everyone. It’s crazy to think that 1 in 4 children live in poverty. A big part of that means they do not have access to three meals a day, let alone fresh healthy food.

So in 2013, I began tackling the problem by running a 5 week pilot cooking programme in Mangere. It aimed to teach families how to cook affordable, healthy and delicious food. Afterwards, I realised we needed to start looking towards long term sustainable solutions, to the growing problem of food accessibility. Currently fast food shops are scattered around every corner especially in low income areas. The homogenous food options creates a huge barrier and stigma towards healthy food. It’s seen as expensive, difficult to access and bland. At the same time, awesome to see so many eateries popping up promoting organic, free-range and healthy food, but why there is no push to see this in the areas which need it the most.

My dream:

I want to research and develop a business model to reduce the barriers of access. I’m aiming to work out how to allow low income areas to access, and get excited about fresh, local and healthy food options. My goal is to get these communities passionate and interested in food, as well as create the demand (and appetite) for home cooked meals and fresh produce.

How I’m going to do it:

To do so, I will be travelling to the UK in December for 8-10 weeks to learn more from leading social enterprises in the field of food accessibility, sustainability, urban farming and the provision of affordable fresh produce to low income areas.

From this trip, I hope to identify what can be applied in New Zealand, and what is missing in this space. Ultimately, this experience will allow me to develop a business model to combat the problem. When I graduate from The University of Auckland at the end of 2015, I hope to have turned this model into my own start up.

What I need:

I’m looking to crowdfund $4800 for my trip. This will cover my plane tickets and travel within the UK.

I will be funding accommodation and food costs myself.

Final words...

Food is a universal language and I believe that we need to do everything we can to ensure everyone has access to a variety of healthy food options. In New Zealand, the right to three healthy meals a day should not be a luxury.

Your pledge is an investment into helping find sustainable solutions to empower our community - so we can solve food insecurities and inaccessibility together.

In return for your pledge, I will take you along on my trip through vlogs, blogs, photos and exclusive interviews.

Once I’m home, I’ll be writing a report to detail my findings. This will include my insights and recommendations into what the leading social enterprises in this space are doing, and where social enterprise and food security is heading.

Additionally, I’ll put together a presentation evening (which sounds way more boring than I’m planning to make it) in Auckland. I’ll be talking about my journey, and the next step forward.