Irked by the amounts of food that gets dumped before it’s even sold, or because it’s just a little too close to that best-before or use-by data, Hastings woman Christina McBeth felt compelled to do something about it. After hearing about an organisation in France running a food rescue operation and using it to feed people, she felt compelled to find out if anyone in New Zealand was doing something similar – there was, Free Store in Wellington and Zilch in Palmerston North.
That meant pickings were ripe for Hawke’s Bay, the country’s ‘fruit bowl’, and also home to Wattie’s and McCain’s factories. Christina began in earnest back in 2017 by asking the city council for a building to work from, rallying volunteers, and approaching cafés and food businesses.
Rather than a building she was given a space in a square on Lawrence Street, and on their first day of operation she and
