Re-establishing the foodbank at Maketū marae during lockdown
Today, the Foodbank re-opened from Maketū Marae, Tuesday 7 September 2021. Shani Chadwick and Kelly Isherwood are fronting the Foodbank on behalf of Ngā Marae o Kāwhia Moana, 8 of our marae around the harbour.
Cath Holland, Waipapa marae trust chair and Foodbank Manager.
“To start, we have asked each of the 8 marae to identify 5 whānau who need immediate support. We suggest this will likely be young families - partners or a single parent with young children, particularly school-aged children.”
Cath says the first food drop will kick off this week and Kelly and Shani will deliver forty food bags around the harbour on Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th September 2021.
Cath confirms, “Once the service is up and running, we will look at increasing our capacity to offer the service to more whānau.”
In order for this to work, Cath says requests for support are initiated by each of the 8 Marae and a designated Marae Liaison who is the primary point of contact with the whānau and the Foodbank.
She points out their biggest impediment has been the inability to secure a permanent facility in the Kāwhia township from which to operate the Foodbank.
“The search has been made even more difficult because of the stringent health and safety regulations that govern how food must be stored and distributed, let alone an imperative to operate from a safe and secure facility. The offer by Maketū Marae to accommodate the service onsite is a short-term strategy only. The securing of a permanent facility is still paramount,” Cath says.
The management of the Foodbank this time around she says is entirely different.
“In this instance, the collective has full responsibility for the establishment, management, operational and financial outcomes of the service based on the level of funding from the Ministry of Social Development. The consequence is that this time around, we cannot support every whānau around the harbour. We have to prioritise and direct the service towards whānau who are most in need of support,” she reiterates.
The Foodbank was initiated last year, in April 2020, at the height of the COVID Pandemic. The collective of 8 Marae around the harbour was established as Ngā Marae o Kāwhia Moanato to support whānau living near their marae, who were struggling to cope with the restrictions imposed by the lockdown. The Foodbank on Maketū Marae was one of the successful initiatives funded by the Civil Defence Emergency Management Team for the Waikato Region.
The kai initiative operated from April to November 2020 when many of our marae were closed. Civil Defence funding stopped on 30 June 2021 and from July to November, the Foodbank continued with the support of the community and tribal donations.
In July of last year, Waipapa Marae Trust applied for MSD funding on behalf of Ngā Marae o Kāwhia Moana to operate a permanent Foodbank for whānau around the harbour. The application was successful and $100K was granted for the establishment of the Foodbank over a 2 year period that will take this initiative through until July 2022.
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