Food Secure Communities current funding rounds

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, MSD has supported access to food through the Food Secure Communities programme.

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.

Learn more about these previous funding rounds.

Budget 2023 extended the Food Secure Communities programme for a further two years. 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 Aotearoa 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. The funding takes the form of different grants. To hear about future funding rounds, please sign up to our Food Secure Communities newsletters.

Community Food Provider Fund 2023

This fund supports community food providers to meet current food demand and to transition out of reliance on government funding. This fund provides $8.3m in transitionary funding over 2023/24 made up of:

• Transitional funding to support community food providers to meet current increased demand and transition out of reliance on government funding - $2.3m funding for 2023/24.
• A further $6m to continue to support the community food sector to meet increased demand for their services in 2023/24.

A closed procurement process has been completed. Funding is being made available to key MSD-contracted community food providers, targeted to areas with greatest need. Successful providers are being contacted with grant offers.

Successful providers were assessed against the following eligibility criteria:

• Has good processes in place to assess needs of clients.
• Has good referral mechanisms to ensure their clients are referred to complementary support services where appropriate.
• Are culturally responsive.
• Provides a service which is nutritionally appropriate and is informed by Aotearoa Food Parcel Measure.
• Has the widest geographic reach.
• Has best-practice safe food handling procedures in place.
• Ensures food is getting to communities which need it most.

A list of successful providers will be published when grant letters have been finalised.

Community Food Hub Fund 2023

The Community Food Hub Fund 2023 provides $1.5m per year in contributory funding to maintain food distribution infrastructure. This funding is for community hubs to collect and deliver high volumes of surplus and wholesale food and is provided over two years.

Community food hubs collect, process and distribute supplies of essential food items to support people who experience food insecurity. Funding was generally provided at three levels based on volume of distributions:

• Small providers - a contributory grant of $25,000 a year
• Medium providers - a contributory grant of $50,000 a year
• Large providers - a contributory grant of $75,000 a year

A closed procurement process was done to identify key hubs across Aotearoa New Zealand. Successful providers are being contacted with grant offers.

Successful providers were assessed against the following eligibility criteria:

• Has capacity to receive, freeze, chill, store and distribute pallet loads of food.
• Ideally also locally rescues food.
• Provides food to a wide range of foodbanks, pātaka, and other social organisations.
• Widest geographic reach.
• Has best-practice safe food handling procedures in place.
• Ensures food is getting to communities which need it most.

A list of successful providers will be published when grant letters have been finalised.

Food Security Funding 2023

This funding is for long-term approaches to food security such as co-ops, social enterprises and māra kai on a pathway to self-sustainability. There is $4.0m available in 2023/24 and $3.5m in 2024/25.

Due to the targeted nature of this funding, the Food Secure Communities team will be in touch with your organisation if you are eligible for funding. Further information will be added here when the process is finalised.