Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective

With Labour Weekend just around the corner, it is timely to release our latest edition of Ka Mākona 2024: Income Adequacy in Aotearoa New Zealand. Food-related poverty, or food insecurity, is not about whether there is enough food in Aotearoa but about whānau having enough resources to access healthy affordable kai 💰 Ensuring people have an adequate income to pay their basic bills is one way for us to ensure Aotearoa is food secure. Ka Mākona explores: who are the 15 – 20 % of our population in Aotearoa New Zealand experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity at any given time? Take a look at the data and report here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gwVRKDEN This year, Ka Mākona is released ahead of Labour Day, a holiday first commemorated in 1890 to celebrate New Zealand workers’ successful fight to claim an 8-hour workday 📆 Labour Day recognises that a worker should earn sufficient income from 8 hours work per day to provide for their family to thrive and allowing them both time and resource to contribute to their community. Do you think these principles still hold true today?  In 2024, Labour Day also coincides with the commemoration of He Whakaputanga, the 1835 Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand, itself a declaration that focused on good trade and the health and well-being of all. Our tūpuna fought for good labour conditions that value people and prosperity, as well as the planet we all share. While little has improved in the past year for those on low incomes, Ka Mākona identifies levers for change that could make a real difference to these whānau. We also highlight some great examples of those who are working to bring about positive change 💡 Labour Day is about thriving and about fullness of life, it is about having the resources we need at the end of our hands. He kai kei tātou ringaringa. So, as we approach Labour Day, we invite you to take a moment to soak up Ka Mākona, to reflect, and to consider what action you might take to ensure everyone’s right to live a good life. For we only thrive when all of us thrive.  

We gained many insights from the Poverty by Design conference, one being that we must remain hopeful that our systems can shift to eliminate poverty. By choosing to do so, we have the huge potential to grow the economy by $17.7 billion a year 📈 Right now, poverty holds us all back from advancing as a society. By underinvesting in services like healthcare and education, the cycle of entrapping individuals in ill-functioning systems is allowed to continue. Speaking in purely financial terms, the cost benefit of eliminating poverty could bring an extra $5.1 billion in tax revenue each year. Can you imagine what positive innovation that could bring about to transform the lives of everyone in Aotearoa for the better? 💡

Here's an in-depth piece about Ka Mākona written by Shanti Mathias for The Spinoff https://lnkd.in/gsH83MbC Asking questions like; "What's the cost of malnutrition?" might seem obvious that not eating enough good food leads to sickness and makes it hard to focus. Yet we also see it as lost potential: "People who can’t get a food grant from MSD, and can’t get food from a food bank – they just go hungry,” Jennie Sim says. “People in these situations are incredibly creative and resilient, but we could do so much more so that it stops happening.” Within the article, we're glad to be woven in alongside recent research from World Vision New Zealand that paints the bigger picture of the economic impacts of malnutrition: “It’s not just health – malnutrition affects all areas of a society,” says Belinda Robb, a researcher at World Vision. [...] In New Zealand, according to the report, malnutrition leads to 2,000 lost years of school and costs $897m of lost income." Our data mapping the cost of living in twelve locations across Aotearoa clearly demonstrates that you simply can't budget your way out of a broken system. When one in five working-age people receive an income that is chronically less than is needed for them and their whānau to survive, the inability to afford food isn’t a one-off; it’s a consistent pattern - one that we've documented across four annual editions of Ka Mākona. Read here: https://lnkd.in/gwVRKDEN We're really grateful for all of the skillful and considerate media coverage of our latest research into income adequacy in Aotearoa. Kore Hiakai will continue to shine a light on this systemic issue and point towards levers for change.

Ngā mihi nui ki a koe to Max Rashbrooke for featuring Ka Mākona on the Good IDEAs Substack by the Institute for Democratic & Economic Analysis https://lnkd.in/gbFhVY_Z (paywalled, see article screenshots below) ⬇️ This is a great well-written piece about the impact of income inadequacy and the high cost of living on food insecurity for families in Aotearoa. We also appreciate you bringing to light the discussion around other economic factors at play in our food system, including food exports and the supermarket duopoly 🛒 We're looking forward to hearing Max and others speak at next week's Pakukore: Poverty by Design Conference at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington.

In case you missed it, our latest Ka Mākona: Income Adequacy in Aotearoa New Zealand was released in time for Labour Weekend 📣 Researcher and Lead Author Jennie Sim was interviewed by Susan Edmunds for RNZ, speaking to the increasing weekly deficit whānau must face, putting more people at greater risk of struggling with food insecurity and/or debt. Read the full article here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gQFTV8-c The fourth annual edition of Ka Mākona shows that the biggest change over the past year is in the increase in rental costs outpacing household incomes which continue to stagnate 🗣 "A Gisborne family face $115 a week and Waitangirua $84 in rental increase from 2023. Of course, those households' incomes haven't increased anywhere near that. Unsurprisingly, this points to our broken housing system, and incomes not keeping pace with housing costs. [...] Generally incomes in most areas seem to have increased around 25 percent from 2019 to 2023, but rental prices have climbed a lot more - it's closer to 60 percent in Gisborne across that same time."   While Ka Mākona focuses more squarely on data figures connected to income and expenses for low-income households in Aotearoa, Kore Hiakai recognises the impact these daily living situations have on whānau. That's why we're committed to deepening our collective understanding of the root causes of food-related poverty and encouraging everyone into conversation and action for change. We stand proudly alongside others mentioned in Ka Mākona who are working to bring about positive change in this space 👏 We'd like to thank and give special mention to: Human Rights Measurement Initiative, Paid Placements Aotearoa NZ, FinCap, Simplicity Living, Mindthegap.nz, Uptempo New Zealand, Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, Ngā Tāngata Microfinance, Christians Against Poverty NZ, Debtfix Foundation, Habitat for Humanity New Zealand (Northland), NZ Housing Foundation, Tāmaki Regeneration, Manaaki Rangatahi, and Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness.

Today is #WorldFoodDay, this year's theme is the Right to Foods for a Better Life and a Better Future. Do you think our current food system is creating a better life or a better future for all our people? 🤔 At Kore Hiakai, we believe that, for everyone in Aotearoa to thrive, we need to transform our food system so that it is more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. By increasing access to healthy nutritious food and addressing power imbalances, people can take ownership of their right to food. Food sovereignty empowers people, as individuals and as groups, to make their own choices about the food they eat, where it comes from, how it is produced and their relationship to its production. So, what does taking ownership of our right to food look like in Aotearoa? Becoming an active participant in the food system! 1⃣ Learn the food stories of your area to get started on your food sovereignty journey. Lots of te reo Māori place names in Aotearoa refer to the food or food traditions found there. Our whenua carries food history. 2⃣ Celebrate World Food Day and your own food heritage by eating something your ancestors would make. Our food has whakapapa, it carries our cultural identity. 3⃣ Engage with our Kai Motuhake resource and webinar! Both offer plenty of insights to help you understand the importance of decolonising and re-indigenising our food system in Aotearoa to grow food sovereignty for all 💡 We encourage you to take a look here: https://lnkd.in/gHqmUM45 We must take collaborative action to remodel our food system because everyone in Aotearoa has the right to a food-secure future. By working together, we can create more resilient and equitable food systems that benefit both producers and consumers and guarantee everyone's right to access enough healthy nutritious food. #ZeroHunger #FoodSecurity #FoodSovereignty #FoodResilience #FoodWaste FAO United Nations

Kai Motuhake Webinar recording available 🔊 Listen now on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gWAB7d3Z We're so grateful to have had such an incredibly dynamic and engaged audience turn out for this event and help us bring this resource to life. Thank you so much to our manuhiri; Denis Grennell, Brook Turner, and Pounamu Skelton, for sharing your important korero and reflections with us all. We hope you're able to tune in and consider how this resource might bring you closer to a deeper understanding of your own kai motuhake or simply a greater awareness of all that you've still got left to learn! Thank you for walking alongside us, mauri ora.

Reminder 📣 Kai Motuhake Webinar ON TOMORROW! Save your spot here: https://lnkd.in/gF4Cj4Jk See you at 2pm on Tues 1 Oct 📆 We're looking forward to exploring how to visualise food security in an Aotearoa context alongside our manuhiri. It'd be great to have you there alongside us to share your thoughts - Mauri ora! P.S. You can also register to catch up on the video recording of the webinar if you're unable to join us live.

We're hosting a webinar conversation to discuss the findings of the recently released Kai Motuhake resource on Tuesday 1st October at 2pm 📆 We invite you to join in this interactive opportunity next week, bringing together some of our manuhiri who will share with us their whakaaro and reactions to Kai Motuhake. Please register your attendance here ➡️https://lnkd.in/gF4Cj4Jk Meet our guest speakers: 🗣 Denis Grennell (Ngāti Maniopoto) Denis' passion for gardening led to formal study in horticulture, organics and permaculture with a career path leading to the establishment of a training and development organisation with a focus on working between the two main corporate bodies of knowledge; Mātauranga Māori and Western Epistemology. He's excited about the opportunity to progress food security and sovereignty and shares a vision where everyone has access to healthy nontoxic food and the ability to produce it themselves. 🗣 Pounamu Skelton (Te Āti Awa, Taranaki, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Raukawa) Pounamu is deeply connected to her cultural foodscapes in North Taranaki. She is the creator and inspiration behind the highly successful māra kai programme called Tātai Tāngata ki te whenua and manages the Hua Parakore verification for Te Waka Kai Ora (Māori organics authority). In the past eighteen months, Pounamu and her whanau have been establishing their Papakainga called Te Rau o Rongo where kai resilience is in action. 🗣 Brook Turner (Pākehā) Brook has worked in the not-for-profit sector for more than 25 years where he’s led the design and delivery of a range of social change initiatives. He was the founding CEO for creative youth charity Zeal before joining the leadership team at Visionwest Community Trust, a social service agency, where he works to address homelessness, reduce poverty, and build a more food-secure Aotearoa. Together, we will explore how to visualise food security in an Aotearoa context, acknowledge the relationship Te Tiriti o Waitangi has with food, and consider how Tangata Tiriti can journey towards kai motuhake 💡 We aim to inspire and challenge you and ask that you engage to share your whakaaro/ ideas and pātai/ questions with us and others, as we continue together to explore and shape ourselves in this mahi. Kai Motuhake resource link here 🔗https://lnkd.in/gHqmUM45

What does food sovereignty mean in the context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi? To celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori and the release of our Kai Motuhake resource –Kore Hiakai invited Kaea Tibble, co-author of Kai Motuhake, https://lnkd.in/gHqmUM45, to share some of his insights on food sovereignty in the context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Click here to read our latest blog: https://lnkd.in/gP8SVVwb "The conversation around food sovereignty is, at its heart, a conversation about the deeper relationship between the land, the people, and Te Tiriti. Only by restoring that connection can we hope to uplift everyone involved."   Join us for a webinar on our Kai Motuhake resource on 1 Oct: https://lnkd.in/gF4Cj4Jk