Meating the needs of Kiwis

Two dairy farmers, Siobhan O’Malley and Wayne Langford, have founded a charity that connects donated produce from farmers with processors and ultimately food banks.

“It has always felt not quite right that we farmers feed so many millions overseas, but there are still people hungry in New Zealand,” says O’Malley, a mid-Canterbury dairy farmer.

A year in the planning, Meat the Need has been launched at the perfect time, enabling farmers to support New Zealanders hit by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 lockdown.

Meat the Need aims to smooth out supply for food banks so they get quality food, in regular amounts that they can plan around, and also to allow farmers to give at seasonal times when they are able.

“We are all about kiwi farmers feeding kiwi families,” says Langford, a Takaka dairy farmer and the Feds’ Golden Bay provincial president.

Langford said there were a lot of strings to pull to get the initiative underway, particularly around food security. At one point they considered a home-kill system, with meat packaged up by young farmer volunteers.

But with Silver Fern Farms onboard as one of the founding partners, Meat the Need can run a model where the nominally donated animal won’t necessarily provide the meat that actually gets to a food bank. Silver Fern also gives the scheme a nationwide reach.

Donated animals would just be collected as normal, alongside others being sent to the works, said Langford. Farmers are encouraged to donate via the Meat the Need website (meattheneed.org) or via Silver Fern Farms stock agents.

“Thanks to partnering with Silver Fern Farms, we are able to accept sheep, deer and cattle, and turn them into mince for kiwi families that need a hand,” said Langford.

Support has also come from DairyNZ, Federated Farmers and Beef + Lamb. 

“A number of individual farmers and groups like AgProudNZ have also been in touch to see how they can help, so we are really excited to see how farmers can have an impact,” said O’Malley.

The charity is being run by a board consisting of Langford and O’Malley, with Ruralco chair-elect Jessie Chan, NZX’s Julia Jones, Tatua director Richard Luxton, and Young Maori farmer Cheyenne Wilson.