Life Health Foods, a division of Sanitarium Health Food Company, has donated $59,000 to support food and nutrition security in New Zealand through its flagship kitchen soups brand Naked Locals.
A “Local Heroes” campaign donated 20c from every soup pack sold, contributing to the vital work of four New Zealand charities who offer nutritious meals to Kiwis in need.
Donated proceeds from Naked Locals’ Lentil, Potato and Caramelised Onion Soup helped Satisfy Food Rescue to purchase a new delivery van and provide over 27,000 additional meals to people in need in Kaiapoi.
“We’ve distributed the equivalent of more than 1.3 million meals so far and we know the funds from the Local Heroes campaign will help us do even more,” said Satisfy Food Rescue manager Stef Van Meer.
Donations from sales of the hearty Farmer’s Market Vege and Quinoa Soup were gifted to Everybody Eats, a pay-as-you-feel dining concept based in Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington which uses surplus food to serve chef-prepared meals.
The proceeds from sales of Kumara and Coconut Soup were donated to Gizzy Kai, a Gisborne based not-for-profit food rescue organisation.
Food rescue charity Fair Food joined the partnership in April 2022 when Life Health Foods’ Pumpkin and Kumara soup was launched. Fair Food, based in West Auckland, distributed over 2.2 million meals to the community in 2021.
“Since 2011, we’ve been recovering surplus food and distributing this to those who need it most,” said Melissa Crawford, Board Chair, Fair Food Trust. “The Naked Locals’ Local Heroes initiative is a welcome partnership that I hope will help us increase our community impact.”
Naked Locals will continue to support Fair Food and Satisfy Food Rescue during the next financial year, with up to $20,000 to be donated to each partner.
