A Gisborne-based charity is making significant changes next month to its food parcel and kai provision model to ensure its sustainability and address the causes of food scarcity and food insecurity.

SuperGrans Tairāwhiti Trust will introduce a limit of six kai parcels per year for individuals and whānau, and boost its wraparound service offering with new kai navigator and financial mentor roles.

The not-for-profit responds to people in crises and emergencies, builds life skills and develops food security for people living in hardship.

This includes offering workshops and mentoring about budgeting, making cost-effective and nutritious meals, general life skills and parenting, plus advocacy, navigation, and social work for complex issues and wider needs beyond kai.

Sarah Elliott, general manager for SuperGrans Tairāwhiti, said the focus was now on a “hand-up model” which involved support from a new kai navigator who could educate people in food literacy and how to make food go further via meal plans, recipes, cooking and other kai options.

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Factors that influenced the decision to limit the number of kai parcels included getting food to where it was needed most, declining food donations, and having stock ready for an emergency.

“We’ve seen over the last year less donations coming in general which is a trend across foodbanks because of prices, money and people,” Elliott said.

“[The new model] will ensure the food is going where it is needed most, to the people who need it most, it ensures we have stocks there for when things like crises and emergencies come up, which we’ve seen lots of. We want to be able to respond to community needs.”

Elliott said people who needed more than six kai parcels each year were likely facing other challenges and SuperGrans Tairāwhiti wanted to offer them tools to overcome those challenges.

“If there isn’t a limit and you are just giving, there is less responsibility and less ability for people to get what they actually need because they are not addressing it.”

She said SuperGrans could also increase the number of community cooking workshops it ran using the food they conserved.

“We are finding that people want the skills, the knowledge, the ways to bulk out food, the way to make a million things out of the bits of food no one really usually uses.”

The change will roll out in full on February 3 and SuperGrans Tairāwhiti has let key referrers know the change was coming.

“We’ve had a lot of feedback saying that with all the new services that we provide it is going to be more supportive for their clients coming in.”

Another part of the new model is two new part-time financial mentors, employed in October last year.

They have since completed training and will offer assistance with financial plans, goals, mentoring and workshops.

“They are currently doing their supervision and working with internal clients. From the beginning of February, they will be ready for referrals.”

Elliott said there was also uncertainty around the future of some funding from the Government, but SuperGrans Tairāwhiti worked to ensure the diversity of its funding streams and it was relying less on the Government for funding.

“It is always going to be unpredictable, but that is why we ensure we are getting funding from multiple sources and philanthropic donators, and that is why it is important in my role to connect and collaborate with the community so we work with other organisations as well,” she said.

“This change is positive for us in terms of getting funding, it shows that we are doing more than a handout, we are really wrapping around to support people holistically.”

According to a SuperGrans Tairāwhiti annual report, from April 2023 to March 2024 SuperGrans distributed 4030 food parcels and provided 113,903 foodbank meals.

Over that same period, 12,577 individuals were assisted and, in terms of one-on-one support, there were 61 navigator clients, 52 cyclone clients, 40 tangata hauora clients (for whānau who struggle financially) and 16 Ngā Whānau Mauriora clients (work on whānau goals with a social worker).

In a more recent newsletter covering a period from June 2024 to November 2024, SuperGrans Tairāwhiti assisted 3867 individuals, gave out 1576 kai parcels and ran ongoing support for 111 whānau.