Foodstuffs North Island has announced a commitment to its new South Auckland neighbourhood, which includes a two-year financial contribution and monthly product deliveries to local community organisations Buttabean Motivation and Māngere Budgeting Services.
The co-op’s commitment includes a $50,000 financial contribution over two years and monthly product deliveries from Foodstuffs’ Landing Drive DC for both Buttabean Motivation and Māngere Budgeting Services. It also builds on the ongoing support the two community organisations already receive from two Foodstuffs’ South Auckland stores, PAK’nSAVE Manukau and PAK’nSAVE Māngere.
The partnerships were announced on Wednesday 28 April at Foodstuffs North Island’s formal official opening of its Landing Drive Support Centre and Distribution Centre campus at Auckland Airport with distinguished guests including Honourable Mayor Phil Goff and Honourable Aupito William Sio, and a performance by Māngere Bridge School.
“Every single New World and PAK’nSAVE store regularly support at least one food bank or food rescue organisation in their local community,” says Chris Quin, CEO of Foodstuffs North Island. “Their ongoing commitment to these organisations ensures the community groups on the ground feeding New Zealanders have surety of support and supply of much needed product.
“The co-op, and roughly 900 of our DC and support centre team, are now homebased in South Auckland at our new Landing Drive campus, so we felt it was an important responsibility for us to build on stores’ ongoing commitment and support in their communities and to demonstrate our commitment to our new community.”
“We work tirelessly to ensure every individual who asks us for a food parcel is given a food parcel, but sometimes, we have to turn people away because we simply don’t have enough grocery essentials to give them,” says Dave ‘Buttabean’ Letele, CEO of Buttabean Motivation Foodbank. “Just two months ago, we did a food bank drive with PAK’nSAVE Manukau which saw their generous customers donate what they could to feed their community, which was then matched up to $10,000 by the store. The ongoing support we receive from PAK’nSAVE Manukau, coupled with the long-term support from Foodstuffs North Island, will allow us to feed more people who would otherwise go without – it’s as simple as that.”
“We exist to support South Aucklanders and the wider Māngere community,” says Darryl Evans, CEO of Māngere Budgeting Services. “It’s incredibly humbling to be one of the beneficiaries of Foodstuffs North Island’s long-term commitment to the Māngere community. Much like our clients who live hand to mouth, we operate in a similar fashion, so to have surety of product and financial support will enable us to scale our services, feed more people and help South Aucklanders who have nowhere else to turn.”
Quin says that the partnership is part of the co-op’s #HereforNZ promise which has a strong focus on making sure New Zealanders have access to healthy and affordable food so they can flourish and get more out of life.
