CSB - Zellara Holden: Meat the Need

New Zealand pig farmers are stepping up to help Kiwi families that are doing it tough with the help of charity Meat the Need - General Manager Zellara Holden joins Craig Cumming.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right. New Zealand pig Farmers are stepping up to help
kirry families that are doing it tough by supporting the
donation of thousands of pork meals to food banks and
community organizations across the country. New Zealand Pork, which represents
New Zealand Pig Farmers, is making marketing it's fiftieth anniversary
by donating meat from fifty pigs to the farmerly charity
Meet the Need. And joining me now from Meet the

(00:21):
Need is Zellara holding. Good morning, Zilara.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
How are you wellom yourself, Craig. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
No, no, thank you for joining us in. First of all,
just give us a bit of a history lesson on
the charity that you're involved with.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Thank you. So Meet the Need was founded in twenty
twenty by two farmers and we have the opportunity to
connect farmers in the amazing produce that they produce two
communities that are affected by student and security. So four
years on we now distribute mins and milk to over

(00:56):
one hundred and eighteen food banks across New Zealand and
we've delivered over two point one million meals. Wow, it's
a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
So I mean logistically, that's a big operation. How do
you pull it all together.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Look, we're very fortunate to have amazing processes and suppliers
on board, working with silver foind Farms, Fonterra, Medarca and
bid Food from a logistics perspective as well.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
And when it comes to I suppose the need are
you noticing it's a great demand at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
It is a huge need at the moment. Our food
banks are saying to us said they've probably seen about
a fifty percent increase walking through their doors, and there's
a huge increase in elderly coming through the doors as well.
They don't need in support with the cost of living
crisis increase and working families. So you know, it is

(01:48):
affecting everybody and for us, we are trying our best
to support our current food banks, but we have a
number of food banks that at this point in time
are are waiting for protein because it's expensive, right MNS
and Marca one of those things will meet is one
of those things that are really costly for people to
pop into their trolleys.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Absolutely, So you know, how gracious are you?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well?

Speaker 1 (02:11):
How thankful we adding us what they're doing right now?

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oh, extremely extremely grateful. What day doing is just going
to make such a huge difference for our families. Being
able to add another protein is always great, choice is
always wonderful. But now being able to feed over you know,
three and a half thousand more meals to go to
families and need is going to make a huge difference.
And already we've got more pork farmers that would been

(02:38):
messaging going great? How do we get on board? So
it's it's just fantastic, hot warming.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
How do you keep promoting keep trying because I mean
it's tough for everyone, But how do you keep trying
to grow and get your name out there and show
what you're doing because you know it's tough for everyone,
but you need to keep trying to stay up with demand.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, we do, look we for us. The key thing
is is everybody can give just a little bit, it
will make a huge impact. You know, we don't We're
not asking farmers to give huge amounts, but a small
portion of what they produce goes a really long way. Okay,
So okay, working together.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, So even from a general public point of view,
is there if they were looking to make a contribution,
what do they need to do.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, a lot. You could go on to our website
and you can donate cash, so you can donate whatever
amount you work through. We've got families that will donate
a portion a week. You know, it might be five
dollars a week. Yep. And that makes a difference.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, it's a certain I mean we know that things
are tough. Obviously we're really grateful New zeal And Pork.
But congratulations on all the great work that you do too, zilar.
I know it's appreciated, and keep up the good fight.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Thank you very much, Craig.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
There we go yep. So New zeal And Pork, I
just go over there again because I think it's worth
celebrating them. Actually they represent the j Olympic Farms of
course making market it's fiftieth anniversary by donating meat from
fifty pigs to the Farmerly Charity which we just had
there meet the need and then meet the need general
manager that we just spoke with the as that are
holding you know, the families with food and cuagretes has

(04:19):
risen over fifty percent and the cost of living and
lost their jobs make it really tough for many communities.
So you can go to meet theneed dot org and
then you can find a way, if you can, to
make a contribution