A timely donation will help Food Rescue Aoraki fill their empty freezers.
Foodstuffs South Island Community Trust has donated $5000 of vouchers to the nonprofit organisation, with half of the vouchers for use at New World and half for Pak’nSave.
When the food rescue team applied to the trust for funding, Andrew Griffiths — the owner and operator at New World Timaru — sponsored their application.
Mr Griffiths said it was good to give back.
He said, ‘‘Times are tough, and it’s good to get alongside a good organisation.’’
Food Rescue Aoraki’s mission was to combat hunger and food waste in the Mid-South Canterbury region by rescuing surplus food that otherwise would have gone to landfill and redistributing to those in need.
The food was rescued from food producers, supermarkets, distributors and greengrocers then packed into boxes to be delivered to foodbanks.
While it was not decided exactly how the vouchers would be spent or distributed, the organisation’s van operator Karen Henderson said the organisation was very low on meat and milk.
‘‘We’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.’’
Ms Henderson said when they delivered food to people they liked to check if they were giving them enough.
‘‘We try to work around their need.’’
She said it was getting harder in the last few months; while they were still receiving the same amount of food, there were more people in need.
The vouchers also offered the organisation a chance to supplement what they were rescuing, or if the food did not suit a person’s dietary needs, specific food could be bought.
They were open to donations from the community.
Any donations of meat would need to be processed, preferably into things which could be cooked quickly and easily, like: sausages, hamburger patties and mince.
Ease of cooking was an important factor, as some families might be restricted with power usage and others might be limited with kitchenware.
Other families were time poor, with some busy with multiple jobs trying to make ends meet.
Some people simply might not know how to cook specific things — which happened to the best of people, as the team had been receiving chicken’s feet lately which they were not too sure what to do with it.
