Kaibosh

Recently the New Zealand
Herald reported the
alarming fact that as much
as half of all the food produced
in the world—two billion tonnes
worth—ends up being thrown
away. The story stated that
the waste is caused by poor
infrastructure and storage facilities,
over-strict sell-by dates, "getone-free''
offers, and consumer
fussiness.
On a personal level, despite
being a relatively aware consumer,
I find myself contributing to the
problem: often it seems I throw
out more salad than I ate. However
this isn’t just an ‘at home’ issue,
food waste affects businesses
too, particularly those in the
food industry, including cafés,
restaurants, retailers and more.
Simply put, food waste makes
no business sense at all. Every bit
of food a business throws out has
been paid for and then the business
has to pay for that waste to be
collected. Reducing food waste
in the first place is a key way to
improve a business’s efficiency and
bottom line. Finding an alternative
means of disposal not only reduces
cost but also ensures the food is
beneficially reused, which is a great
way to help your business and to
also help our communities and our
environment.
Food rescue is an increasingly
popular option both here in New
Zealand and around the world.
Food rescue safely retrieves edible
food that would otherwise go to
waste and distributes it to those
who need it most. In most cases,
the rescued food is perfectly
edible, but not suitable for sale. It
could be day old bread, bagged
lettuce past its best-before date,
or even unblemished food which is
simply surplus to requirements.
To give you a first-hand
understanding of what food
recovery is, and how it works
here in New Zealand, we talked
to Matt Dagger, general manager
of Wellington’s innovative and
award winning Kaibosh www.
kaibosh.org.nz.
Kaibosh was founded by
Robyn and George Langlands in
2008 and was New Zealand’s first
and Wellington’s only dedicated
food rescue organisation. With a
vision of “Zero food poverty and
zero food waste” Kaibosh was
established in response to a need
in the community. With stretched
financial resources, charities were
struggling to source and purchase
quality food while at the same time
a huge amount of food was being
needlessly discarded by the food
industry.
Kaibosh came from modest
beginnings where the Langlands
rescued food one night a week
and stored it in their home fridge,
before taking it to a drop-in centre
the next day. Now, almost five years
later, Kaibosh has a community
office, five employees, and a
dedicated team of more than 65
regular volunteers.
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