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Our food response – Te Kai Mākona
Te Kai Mākona is The Salvation Army’s new food response to strengthen food security for whānau and communities. Mākona means to be fully satisfied. To have everything you need physically, emotionally, spiritually, and socially. Our dream is for a food secure Aotearoa where people are thriving within their communities.
Through our network of foodbanks around Aotearoa we provide places of support and connection, offering food parcels that meet the unique needs of individuals and families in times of hardship. We also provide important food supports during emergency and pandemic events.
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Learn more about the name and origin of Te Kai Mākona in this short video
Strengthening our provision
We are working hard to strengthen our food response. Manaakitanga (care of people), whanaunatanga (relationships) and aroha (love) are reflected in our practice. By working relationally we can tailor food responses that meet individual needs. Kai plans may be offered to provide a longer period of food support where people need time to manage their underlying stressors. Changes to our foodbanks enable people to choose their own food items, providing greater levels of choice and agency, creating opportunities for deeper connection and minimising waste.
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See how we are helping strengthen our food provision
Read about the changes being made around the country with these stories
Building resilience with food empowerment
Te Kai Mākona builds longer term resilience by offering a range of empowering food-based supports that build on the strengths and capacity of people to meet their own food needs. Our new food empowerment approaches include initiatives to cook kai, grow kai, share kai, buy affordable kai, connect through kai and partner around kai.
Our new food empowerment approaches supplement the traditional wrap-around supports offered by Salvation Army centres to address the underlying causes of food insecurity. These include practical assistance, financial mentoring, education programmes, social work, advocacy, counselling, addictions and housing supports.
No one solution will address food insecurity in Aotearoa on its own. Each community has its own complex challenges and opportunities, so our centres are empowered to partner locally to develop and deliver food responses that meets short term hardship as well as building longer term resilience for their community.
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See how we are helping build resilience through new food empowerment initiatives and partnerships
Read about the changes being made around the country with these stories
Addressing underlying causes of food insecurity
Addressing the underlying causes of food insecurity is critical to achieving a food secure Aotearoa and is fundamental to Te Kai Mākona. This vital social justice work is delivered through the research, advocacy, and the thought-leadership of The Salvation Army’s Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit (SPPU) and our work with other community organisations such as Kore Hiakai and Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance (AFRA).
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Read more about SPPU’s reports on food insecurity in Aotearoa See how we are helping build resilience through new food empowerment initiatives