Food Secure Communities - Budget 2023

Supporting the community food sector and access to affordable, healthy and culturally appropriate food - Wellbeing Budget 2023.

This initiative will continue to support the community food sector.

The Government is investing $24.8 million over two years (2022/23 to 2024/25) to continue to support access to affordable, healthy and culturally appropriate food.

The Food Secure Communities programme will continue to build community resilience and help connect with hard-to-reach communities.

• Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, MSD has supported access to food through the Food Secure Communities programme. The programme supported the delivery of more than 671,000 food parcels to people in need during the response to COVID-19.
• The programme also supported communities to develop food security plans and pilot projects which increase vulnerable communities’ access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate kai. These projects are now being scaled up and are making a real difference, allowing communities to take the lead in becoming more resilient.
• The goal is to move government investment in the community food sector away from emergency response and toward empowering, sustainable, community-led solutions that align with ongoing cross-agency conversations about improving New Zealand’s food system.
• The Food Secure Communities programme has deliberately increased the diversity of the community food sector to ensure culturally appropriate responses are available for Māori and Pacific communities, and for those at higher risk of hardship and food insecurity.
• The Food Secure Communities programme will continue to build community resilience and help connect with hard-to-reach communities by:
  • Maintaining the community food distribution infrastructure to collect and deliver high volumes of surplus and wholesale food ($7.5 million per year for two years).
  • Continuing to provide seed funding for food security initiatives such as co-ops, social enterprises and māra kai on a pathway to self-sustainability ($4 million in 2023/24 and $3.5 million in 2024/25).
  • Continuing targeted support to meet increased demand for community food services ($2.3 million in 2023/24).