Vege co-op offers a meaty challenge to supermarkets

Wellington’s regional fruit and vege co-op is expanding into meat as it looks to create an affordable local food system that bypasses supermarkets.
Hauora Kai is in talks with Wellington meat processor Taylor Preston following “very popular” demand for a meat offering from its members, said regional co-ordinator Cory Hope. It has already branched out into eggs, supplied by Shevington Farm in Ōtaki and Wairarapa Eggs in Carterton.
The co-op was formed a decade ago after Wellington Regional Public Health approached the Methodist-affiliated non-profit Wesley Community Action in Cannons Creek, concerned about the lack of healthy food options in East Porirua, a population of predominantly Pacific, Māori and low-income families – a disproportionate amount of whom were suffering from obesity and nutrition-related chronic disease.
After a successful pilot based on Christchurch’s Foodtogether model, Hauora Kai was set up. It buys bulk fresh fruit and veges at wholesale prices from the country’s oldest grower-owned co-operative, Market Gardeners. Volunteers repack the produce for collection from local co-ops across the region, from Newtown in the central city to Ōtaki and Masterton in the north.
The not-for-profit believes access to fresh, healthy kai is a right, not a privilege, and that the food system is “broken” and does not cater for everyone in the community, creating a cycle of dependence on food banks and other food charity schemes.
Hauora Kai supplies about 1400 packs a week, containing three to four varieties of fruit and three to four varieties of veges for $15. Larger whānau groups order multiple packs.
It has an exemption from the Ministry for Primary Industries for its produce repacking operations but in order to sell meat, it needs to comply with food safety rules for low-risk businesses under National Programme 2 of the Food Act. 
“We’re going to have a crack at it here in Cannons Creek, and hopefully we will be starting in the next couple of weeks,” Hope said. “We’re the umbrella organisation for all of this stuff – we see it as our role to do all the experimentation and trying things out, and then hopefully the other co-ops will pick it up over time.”
The initial offering would probably be limited to frozen mince for simplicity, he said.
Hope would like to expand the service further to enable small local growers, many of whom were struggling to remain viable selling to supermarkets, to sell direct to members through the platform.
Hauora Kai was working with tech start-up Co-Shop to create an online platform at the local Karori co-op, which could develop into a wider marketplace for smaller local producers to sell their fruit and veges.
“The biggest issue that we see is all about access to the market, but not just access to produce for consumers, access to consumers from producers,” Hope said.
“It’s just not worth their while to even continue to exist. We think that’s a problem.
“We’ve got the logistical infrastructure – we’ve got freight, we’ve got trucks going around, and we’ve got locations where people are, little food hubs, if you like, going around the place. We’re hoping to leverage all of that, but bring in a wider variety of produce, and ideally, much more locally produced produce.”
Encouraging local growers would improve food security for the region and was in line with Te Whatu Ora’s aim to develop a regional food system.
“We need more production here in the Wellington region, and if we can support that by creating an online platform that gives those producers access to consumers through our large membership we think that might be a good thing,” Hope said.
The co-op was more efficient with higher volumes as it had fixed costs for transportation and administration.
“The more people we’ve got buying packs, the more produce you can get into the packs, and the better value it becomes,” Hope said. 
While Hauora Kai’s target market was people who wouldn’t normally be able to afford to purchase fresh fruit and veges, about 30 percent of members didn’t need to access the service for financial reasons, he said.
“They purchase from the co-op because they understand how it’s actually supporting their community by purchasing the pack. So we’ve got all walks of life buying our packs,” he said.
“We want everyone to be purchasing these packs, because the more packs we’re selling, the more money we’ve got coming in, the more produce we can get into the packs, and that benefits everyone.”