Shannon Kai Hub - Open for Business
“It felt like an impossible dream, but here we are, one year later!” Sharon Williams, and her colleagues dreamed big last year when lockdown hit the community in Shannon hard.
Photo: Warwick Smith, Stuff
Shannon is already classified at 10/10 on the New Zealand Index of Deprivation so something needed to be done. Born out of the vison of a few, the idea took thousands of hours, many challenges, tears and prayers which culminated in the opening of a multipurpose centre that delivers community support on May 15th.
The Kai Hub, located right in the centre of Shannon, provides a free food store with no criteria, a social space for people to meet up and chat over a cuppa and cookies, a boutique special-prices op shop, the Helping Hands Community Network office – where people can obtain essential household items for free, gardening information and seeds, plus, a range of advice, advocacy, and support. It’s manākitanga in action! “We are passionate about our vision of better lives through kai. We want our community to have more abundant food and know this leads to better health. We want to feel better connected to each other; to be able to support, nurture and cherish each other,” Sharon shared at the opening.
One primary goal of the Kai Hub is to increase food resilience in Shannon and the surrounding rural communities; distributing rescued kai to address food insecurity and reducing how much ends up in land fill. There is no limit to how much food people can take. “It’s better off in someone’s home that in the land fill, even if it stays on their pantry shelf for a while,” says Sharon. In the first week since opening 175 people took home 2,384.4kg of food, feeding 602 people. 11 consultations were held in the Helping Hands office resulting in 27 essential packs being given out (mostly containing things like bedding and toiletries).
Photo: Warwick Smith, Stuff
“It’s already having an impact on the community,” says Sharon. “For example, this week a woman took her basket of food to the counter and asked how much she had to pay. When she was told nothing, she sighed with relief and asked to hug the person behind the counter as it had made her day.”
The project has been well supported by Hāpai te Hāpori and MSD with more funding expected from Internal Affairs later in the year. This initiative is a good example of why the Bishop’s Community Development Trusts are so important. The Kai Hub has been able to contract the services of Christina Curley to manage funding applications, as part of a steering group which includes Anita Nunn and Jenny Small who are overseeing day to day operations.
If you want to find out more, check them out on Facebook, or pop in next time you are in Shannon, 36 Plimmer Terrace between 10am and 3pm Tuesday to Saturday.
Sharon Williams is one of the hardworking team of six at the Kai Hub, is part of the Shannon-Foxton Parish and is a Community Innovation Navigator for Hāpai te Hāpori (one of the Bishop’s Community Development Trusts).
Let’s pray for volunteers who are passionate and on-board with the kaupapa of the kai hub. Pray for finances to keep the complex operation going. Pray for a continuing sense of unity within the team and with those partnering with the kai hub.
