The founder of Food Rescue Aoraki is hanging up the van keys for the last time this week.
Helen McKeown started volunteering for Foodbank Aotearoa during the Covid-19 pandemic and was soon employed by the organisation.
When Foodbank Aotearoa became insolvent just before Christmas 2023, she actively began the search for a funder in order to continue the work in Mid and South Canterbury.
Ms McKeown said the group was ‘‘lucky enough’’ to have a benefactor donate $30,000 so the organisation could carry on.
Funds were secured days before Christmas, which meant she was able to tell community groups and staff that it would be reopening in the new year with a new name, Food Rescue Aoraki.
If not for that benefactor, she was not sure the organisation could have gone on to help prevent edible foods from entering the landfill.
While South Canterbury had a green bin waste system, packaged foods might not necessarily be emptied individually, which meant they could find their way to the red bin.
She was thankful to the huge input and help from Safer Mid Canterbury general manager Kevin Clifford for being a mentor during that time.
While she had a paid position at the rescue, she had also continued volunteering as it was ‘‘really good for your soul’’.
‘‘If you buy into it, it is not just a job.’’
She said March figures showed six tonnes of waste had been diverted from landfill in Timaru and five tonnes in Ashburton, all of which was sorted by staff and volunteers and and sent out to food banks for free.
Being a mother of four children — two sets of twins — had taught her how to economise.
‘‘I’ve run the food rescue as I would have run my household.’’
She said she had a huge responsibility to the community, with 20 organisations relying on them.
‘‘If we’d fallen over for financial reasons it would affect them and I was also conscious it would affect staff.’’
She did not want people to think she was ‘‘some kind of martyr’’.
‘‘There are a lot of people in the community who do a lot of good things.
‘‘Just the other day a guy dropped off 100kg of pumpkins he had grown himself.’’
Over the years the need for food in the community had increased, she said.
‘‘Every time the staple in a family’s budget goes up, something has got to give.’’
Some families might only need assistance once or twice a year, but food banks were seeing more like that, she said.
‘‘A lot more.’’
The elderly were one of the groups most affected.
She said organisations specifically servicing the elderly were seeing ‘‘a big increase in their demand’’.
Pensioners with a fixed income and daily costs increasing all the time were having to choose between food or warmth.
Another group struggling was young families.
She was very thankful to all of the volunteers who had helped out over the years, as well as the warehouse’s 2IC Chris Phillips who Ms McKeown said was ‘‘very valuable’’.
For now, she was going to relax and catch up with family and friends.
‘‘And hoon around in my camper.’’
