For the social supermarket, they partnered with Foodstuffs North Island.<\/p>\n
Wainui said they would initially serve about 80 families a week, or just over 4000 a year, with capacity to expand as demand and food supplies grew. <\/p>\n
Unlike a traditional food bank, families will be able to browse shelves and select the groceries that best suit their household.<\/p>\n
For the first three to six months, it will be a free service, and there won\u2019t be a limit to what kind or how many items families can choose, while the organisation learns how much food is needed. <\/p>\n
Wainui said it might introduce a small contribution at a later stage to encourage conversations around budgeting and financial wellbeing. <\/p>\n
The supermarket will initially accept referrals only from within Kirikiriroa Family Services, before gradually opening to external referrals as staff refine the model. <\/p>\n
Alongside food support, clients will have access to financial mentoring, social workers and other wraparound services designed to tackle the underlying causes of hardship. <\/p>\n
Kirikiriroa Family Services chief executive Jaye Wainui. Photo \/ Tom Eley<\/p>\n
Wainui said the supermarket was intended to be more than an emergency food service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really just a hook. For one need, there are usually multiple ones sitting there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the organisation\u2019s priority was to support families with children and to ensure assistance reached those who needed it most. <\/p>\n
Food insecurity remained a significant issue across the region, with many families reluctant to seek help because they felt others were worse off.<\/p>\n
Giving people the ability to choose their own groceries could help reduce the stigma often associated with food assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to choose what you can take home … for me, it\u2019s just seeing the kids\u2019 faces.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see these kids walk up to a shelf and go, \u2018Wow\u2019. That to me is giving them that choice.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of the biggest changes the organisation had seen was the kind of households needing support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people who are asking for food support \u2013 we\u2019re seeing large numbers of working families, and that\u2019s the real shocker,\u201d Wainui said. <\/p>\n
Budgeting advice alone was often not enough when familiesdid not have enough money to cover essential costs.<\/p>\n
Wainui said the social supermarket would initially serve about 80 families a week. Photo \/ Tom Eley<\/p>\n
The social supermarket will be largely volunteer-run, supported by one full-time staff member funded for the first year by the DV Bryant Trust. <\/p>\n
Wainui said that, for him, success would ultimately mean fewer families needing food support.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s a reality that food insecurity is going to be here for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirikiriroa Family Services\u2019 supermarket is Foodstuffs North Island\u2019s 15th social supermarket partnership across the North Island, Foodstuffs North Island Head of Social Supermarkets, Willa Hand, said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSocial supermarkets are about much more than food,\u201d Foodstuffs North Island head of social supermarkets Willa Hand said. \u201cThey offer people choice and mana while connecting them with services that can help address challenges they may be facing. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery community is different, which is why we work with local partners that understand the needs of the people they support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re delighted to be partnering with Kirikiriroa Family Services Trust to bring this model to [Hamilton] for the first time. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur local buddy store, Pak\u2019nSave Mill St, will play an important role in supporting the social supermarket, providing ongoing training, guidance and practical support to ensure its success.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kirikiriroa Family Services chief of partnerships Aroha Te Kanawa said the project supported wh\u0101nau beyond immediate food needs. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want this to be a place where people feel welcomed, supported and connected. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe social supermarket is one part of a wider vision that includes access to services, opportunities to learn new skills and community gardens. <\/p>\n
The social supermarket is expected to open on August 18. <\/p>\n
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the social supermarket, they partnered with Foodstuffs North Island. Wainui said they would initially serve about 80…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[36714,138,5346,5988,2109,564,2082,6288,33184,29529,78,261431,130,5971,111,139,69,2847,5493,2680,15290,59742,16654,1321,1072,97,1886,131,7563,1533,102,379],"class_list":["post-529550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-36714","tag-business","tag-expected","tag-families","tag-family","tag-food","tag-for","tag-hamilton","tag-hardship","tag-hoping","tag-in","tag-kirikiriroa","tag-more","tag-need","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-only","tag-open","tag-opens","tag-operators","tag-pathway","tag-provide","tag-services","tag-social","tag-supermarket","tag-support","tag-than","tag-those","tag-will","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}