Flaxmere Nourished for Nil keeps food out of landfill

Bringing food from Nourished for Nil in Hastings to Flaxmere every Saturday is proving very popular.

Since early October the Nourished for Nil team has delivered tinned and bottled foods, fruit and vegetables, bread and frozen foods to the Flaxmere Community Centre, with volunteers, pictured below, sharing it out to the community over an hour from noon on Saturdays. Over the first four weeks nearly 600 parcels of food were given to Flaxmere families.

While there is no doubt the free food is a huge bonus for our families, the primary aim is to keep perfectly good food out of the landfill. Nourished for Nil says that every year in New Zealand more than $1 billion of food goes to landfills. That is not only expensive, but is very bad for the environment as it produces methane gas.

None of the food is outside of its ‘use by’ date, rather it is often packaging faults or fruit and vegetables not considered suitable for shops that see it land up with Nourished for Nil.

The plan is to continue the initiative given its popularity but there will be a break over Christmas and New Year.