Stories & Pānui
February 2026 Pānui
Waitangi Day is a day of many things, amongst which is the invitation and opportunity to reflect on what it means to be people on this land and how we are called to respect, respond and act.
This year we hope that we continue to explore these things together, to challenge each other, encourage each other and work together to create an Aotearoa New Zealand where power is relinquished and shared, where the promises of Te Tiriti are honoured, and where all have enough resources, including kai, to thrive.
December 2025 Pānui
For many of you at this time there is an intensity to the mahi around us as we strive to ensure all in our communities have what they need to connect with each other, share with the people they love, and feed their whānau. In a world full of demands and divisions this is a moment for us to pause, even for a moment, to truly see each other and all that makes us different from each other. May it also be a moment to acknowledge all that connects us to each other, to celebrate that we do this crazy dance called life together - and we are all richer because of our differences and diversity, our aroha and our care.
For us at Kore Hiakai it has been wonderful exploring, learning, and creating connection with you throughout 2025.What a privilege - Thank you!
New national report shows community food support is ‘life-changing’ for thousands of whānau.
Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective alongside the Tāmaki Makaurau Community Food Distributors Network and the Aotearoa Food Parcel Measure have released The Impact of Community Food Support, a nationwide report that draws on the experiences of 189 whānau across Aotearoa New Zealand, representing 641 people, including 267 children.
The findings are clear: community food support is not only easing immediate hunger, but also strengthening emotional and mental wellbeing, stabilising household finances, and reconnecting whānau to their communities.
“In a country with everything we need to ensure everyone thrives, it is astonishing that one in four households still run out of food,” says Tric Malcolm (Pou Ārahi, Kore Hiakai).
“Whānau told us again and again that food support doesn’t just fill cupboards, it restores dignity, reduces stress, and gives them breathing room to move toward long-term stability. It is not the whole answer to our food insecurity problem in Aotearoa New Zealand, but with this immediate support whanau have an opportunity to find relief.”
Food Charities Call for Sustainable Government Funding Amid Ongoing Uncertainty
The Salvation Army, Auckland City Mission – Te Tāpui Atawhai, New Zealand Food Network (NZFN), Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective and the Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance (AFRA), are calling on the government and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to commit to long-term, sustainable funding for foodbank and food rescue organisations, as frontline providers face another year of uncertainty.
October 2025 Pānui
Ka tangi te pīpīwharauroa, ko te karere a Mahuru
When the shining cuckoo sings, it is the messenger of spring
As we watch the green shoots of spring appear, with kererū weighing down the branches in the ngahere, tūī flocking in the kōwhai, spring flowers bringing vibrant colours to our landscapes and days growing longer - there are signs of hope and possibility all around us. Kōanga, or Spring, reminds us that same possibility exists within us, too.
Building a National Food Strategy for Aotearoa New Zealand
Each year, World Food Day invites us to pause and reflect on how we feed ourselves and each other. The 2025 theme, “Hand in Hand for Better Food and a Better Future,” reminds us that food systems are at their best when built on collaboration across communities, sectors, and generations.
Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, that invitation lands with resonance.
Kai Motuhake - reflecting back and moving forwards
A year on from the publication of our Kai Motuhake resource, our co-authors - Kore Hiakai Kaimahi Moko Morris, Pou Māori and Tric Malcolm, Pou Ārahi - reflect on how it has been carried into different places and spaces.
We also include perspectives from invited contributors discussing how Kai Motuhake now shapes their mahi and is being lived out in their communities.
What does decolonisation and re-indigenisation mean to you in your context or organisation?
August 2025 Pānui
Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i toiroa
Let us keep close together, not far apart
Kōanga is beginning to show itself in the greening of fruit trees, the first blossoms, and kai like kūmara seedlings finding their place in the soil. These signs of renewal remind us that new beginnings are always possible.
This pānui is full of that same sense of possibility and connection, journeying through our Winter Webinar Series, to the follow-on from our July hui Te Whiringa, to new resources and reflections gathered from across our network.
Together, these updates show the breadth of mahi happening across Aotearoa and remind us that when we share, collaborate, and hold each other close, we move further toward a food secure future for all.
Reflections on Te Whiringa
In early July, Kore Hiakai hosted Te Whiringa, a two-day national hui held at Zealandia – Te Māra a Tāne in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. We gathered new members to launch our Collective, alongside longtime friends, curious newcomers, our Kai Rawa trustees, and the Kore Hiakai kaimahi unit. We also acknowledge those who couldn’t be there but are a valued part of this journey.
One of our aims was to weave together a diverse tapestry of people from across the food and equity systems. In doing so, we hoped to disrupt our collective thinking and explore how joined-up solutions across sectors and perspectives might create a food secure Aotearoa.
June 2025 Pānui
As we pause as a nation this month to observe Puanga and Matariki; - to remember, acknowledge and grieve what we have lost, to cast our eyes to the horizon in awe and seek wisdom from the stars and the rhythms of all our ancestors, and to be hopeful for the year ahead - may we truly pause and pay attention to each of these things.
As we way-find together into the year ahead, serving our communities, making connections, listening to each other, and fostering prosperity and wellness - may our hope be to seek the abundance that will feed our nation in every way and enable us all to heal and thrive.
There is much in the world, and in our lives, that seems chaotic and in conflict. There are also so many opportunities to connect, to care, and to create. Thank you to all of you who share those with us & for us every day. We also hope you find all of those things present here in this pānui also.
Let connection be our antidote
Our tamariki, our older people, our communities, our schools, our whānau, our whenua, our taiao. These are the things we value. In a world that feels quite hard right now, there is an invitation to soften ourselves and gently hold all that we truly value at the fore.
This year’s Budget Day was a bit of a mixed bag. Iwi, hapū and community food providers are grateful to have some funding continue, especially as we watch so many other seemingly essential services reduced or removed. But the funding that we have been offered is small, a drop in the bucket of our response to poverty and our journey towards a food secure Aotearoa. Yet, even a small pebble can make a ripple that continues to shift a large body of water.
April 2025 Pānui
Me hoki koe i tou ūkaipō
Return to your source of sustenance
As this year unfolds, Kore Hiakai is focused on living deeply into our roots – of connecting and collaborating with those committed to the kaupapa of Food Security and Kai Motuhake. These connections feed the soul of Kore Hiakai, re-set us, ground us. They are our music. We hope you find something in our values and our pānui to sustain you, as we work together towards a food secure Aotearoa New Zealand.
Tangata Moana Pay Equity Project Update
Reflecting on our roots reminds us that this kaupapa is about more than addressing hunger—it’s about transforming the systems that shape our lives. Food security is deeply tied to equity, and for Tangata Moana, that means confronting the realities of pay inequity in the very food system they help sustain.
Pasifika people experience food insecurity at higher rates than any other group in Aotearoa. At the same time, many are employed across the food system—often in low-wage roles. This project seeks to understand and disrupt that imbalance by naming the structures that create it, and imagining new ones that allow all our communities to thrive.
In recent months, our Pou Pasifika, Philippa Holmes, has been carrying this kaupapa with care—connecting with Pacific leaders, workers, and thinkers across Tāmaki Makaurau, and helping shape a grounded and collective path forward.
Why are food banks still relevant?
Today, more people are food insecure than ever previously recorded in Aotearoa. 27% of our children – that is 263,000 tamariki - live in homes where food sometimes run out. Food banks are distributing food parcels at around twice the rate they were before COVID. In our current economic climate, unemployment is yet to peak. How we respond to this persistent need for food reveals what we choose to value, as a society.
February 2025 Pānui
Ki te kotahi te kākaho, ka whati; ki te kāpuia, e kore e whati
When a reed stands alone it is vulnerable, but a group of reeds together is unbreakable.
Kore Hiakai have an exciting year ahead of us and we hope you might be willing to engage and join with us for parts of it. We want to know about what hopeful mahi is going on in your space too, as it is all our stories put together that helps realise our dream for a food secure Aotearoa.
Why we support the Employment Relations Amendment Bill
We submitted in support of the changes to the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill that will eliminate the kind of secrecy that allows pay gaps to persist.
We celebrate these proposed changes that can enable:
Greater transparency for employees to talk about their pay rate without facing repercussions
Pay discrimination to be more easily identified and remedied - closing pay gaps can reduce rates of food insecurity
Employees empowered to share their information and challenge unjust discrimination creates a more fair and equitable society
December 2024 Pānui
December has provided Kore Hiakai with the opportunity to pause and remember some of our highlights from 2024 emerging from the deep whanaungatanga we have experienced across the motu. It brings us joy to share some of those with you in this pānui as a spotlight on our best 'shining a light' moments from this past year ✨ Ngā mihi maioha ki a koutou katoa for all you give and share with us.
Where is the hope for whānau this Christmas?
At Kore Hiakai, we are conscious that Ka Mākona paints a challenging picture of life for whānau on low incomes, when earnings are inadequate to meet their everyday living costs. So, we often ask; where is the hope for our whānau?
To answer this question, Tony Fuemana, GM at Uptempo, Brittany Goodwin, Senior Policy and Advocacy Adviser at Good Shepherd, and Māhera Maihi, CEO at Mā te Huruhuru share with us about how their mahi makes a difference and a vision of their hopes for a brighter future.
October 2024 Pānui
He kai kei tātou ringaringa.
There is food at the end of our hands.
He kai kei tātou ringa is a well-known whakataukī that signifies resilience, empowerment, and hope.
Happy Labour Day Weekend!
What does food sovereignty mean in the context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi?
To celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori and the release of our Kai Motuhake resource –Kore Hiakai invited Kaea Tibble, co-author of Kai Motuhake, to share some of his insights on food sovereignty in the context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.