Stories & Pānui
April 2025 Pānui
Me hoki koe i tou ūkaipō
Return to your source of sustenance
As this year unfolds, Kore Hiakai is focused on living deeply into our roots – of connecting and collaborating with those committed to the kaupapa of Food Security and Kai Motuhake. These connections feed the soul of Kore Hiakai, re-set us, ground us. They are our music. We hope you find something in our values and our pānui to sustain you, as we work together towards a food secure Aotearoa New Zealand.
Tangata Moana Pay Equity Project Update
Reflecting on our roots reminds us that this kaupapa is about more than addressing hunger—it’s about transforming the systems that shape our lives. Food security is deeply tied to equity, and for Tangata Moana, that means confronting the realities of pay inequity in the very food system they help sustain.
Pasifika people experience food insecurity at higher rates than any other group in Aotearoa. At the same time, many are employed across the food system—often in low-wage roles. This project seeks to understand and disrupt that imbalance by naming the structures that create it, and imagining new ones that allow all our communities to thrive.
In recent months, our Pou Pasifika, Philippa Holmes, has been carrying this kaupapa with care—connecting with Pacific leaders, workers, and thinkers across Tāmaki Makaurau, and helping shape a grounded and collective path forward.
Why are food banks still relevant?
Today, more people are food insecure than ever previously recorded in Aotearoa. 27% of our children – that is 263,000 tamariki - live in homes where food sometimes run out. Food banks are distributing food parcels at around twice the rate they were before COVID. In our current economic climate, unemployment is yet to peak. How we respond to this persistent need for food reveals what we choose to value, as a society.
February 2025 Pānui
Ki te kotahi te kākaho, ka whati; ki te kāpuia, e kore e whati
When a reed stands alone it is vulnerable, but a group of reeds together is unbreakable.
Kore Hiakai have an exciting year ahead of us and we hope you might be willing to engage and join with us for parts of it. We want to know about what hopeful mahi is going on in your space too, as it is all our stories put together that helps realise our dream for a food secure Aotearoa.
Why we support the Employment Relations Amendment Bill
We submitted in support of the changes to the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill that will eliminate the kind of secrecy that allows pay gaps to persist.
We celebrate these proposed changes that can enable:
Greater transparency for employees to talk about their pay rate without facing repercussions
Pay discrimination to be more easily identified and remedied - closing pay gaps can reduce rates of food insecurity
Employees empowered to share their information and challenge unjust discrimination creates a more fair and equitable society
December 2024 Pānui
December has provided Kore Hiakai with the opportunity to pause and remember some of our highlights from 2024 emerging from the deep whanaungatanga we have experienced across the motu. It brings us joy to share some of those with you in this pānui as a spotlight on our best 'shining a light' moments from this past year ✨ Ngā mihi maioha ki a koutou katoa for all you give and share with us.
Where is the hope for whānau this Christmas?
At Kore Hiakai, we are conscious that Ka Mākona paints a challenging picture of life for whānau on low incomes, when earnings are inadequate to meet their everyday living costs. So, we often ask; where is the hope for our whānau?
To answer this question, Tony Fuemana, GM at Uptempo, Brittany Goodwin, Senior Policy and Advocacy Adviser at Good Shepherd, and Māhera Maihi, CEO at Mā te Huruhuru share with us about how their mahi makes a difference and a vision of their hopes for a brighter future.
October 2024 Pānui
He kai kei tātou ringaringa.
There is food at the end of our hands.
He kai kei tātou ringa is a well-known whakataukī that signifies resilience, empowerment, and hope.
Happy Labour Day Weekend!
What does food sovereignty mean in the context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi?
To celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori and the release of our Kai Motuhake resource –Kore Hiakai invited Kaea Tibble, co-author of Kai Motuhake, to share some of his insights on food sovereignty in the context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
August 2024 Pānui
Whāia te mātauranga hei oranga mō koutou.
Seek after wisdom for the sake of your wellbeing.
As we navigate through the deep troughs of winter, amidst the seemingly constant onslaught of government decisions, we recognise the struggle many of you are having as you grapple with ever-increasing need for food assistance. This puts more pressure on your already over-stretched services while coping with significant funding reductions, and on your efforts to collectively and creatively build food secure communities across Aotearoa. Your efforts help foster the hope that together we can reimagine a way through our current reality.
What does Te Tiriti o Waitangi have to do with food?
Through some of the mahi Kore Hiakai does around the motu, we are often asked the following question:
“What does Te Tiriti o Waitangi have to do with food?”
It might be easier to ask; what doesn’t Te Tiriti o Waitangi have to do with food?
welcome to our June pānui
Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa.
Let us keep close together, not wide apart
This whakatauki speaks to the importance of keeping connected, of maintaining relationships and dialogue so that we can keep moving forward together.
Matariki has set below the horizon and we now begin the wait in the cold crispness of the emerging winter for the return of Matariki. A reminder to acknowledge the wisdom of what has been, to celebrate it and mourn what has been lost while we wait with hope to launch our dreams on the star of Pohutukawa at the end of June. The winter planting calendar reminds us that across much of Aotearoa, even in the frost, carrots can be planted in June. You will not see them for many weeks. But plant now, ready for a spring crop. An act of hope that even with the supposed barrenness of the winter garden, possibility and abundance lurks beneath the soil.
welcome to the march pānui
Welcome to our Autumn 2024 Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective pānui.
It is wonderful to be connecting with your all again as together we strive for our vision of A Food Secure Aotearoa for All. The proverb above reminds us that if we each carry our small part we can make amazing things happen. When we work together, through kotahitanga, that we will get to the end goal. Even if we do different things from each other, our common vision and goal holds us together.
welcome to our december pānui
may we all have enough to thrive - ka mākona
welcome to our November pānui
Ki te kotahi te kakaho ka whati, Ki te kapuia e kore e whati.
When a reed stands on its own it can easily break, but a group of reeds together bend in the prevailing wind.
The last month or so has been a journey, as we have changed season into spring and as we move into life with our new government in whatever form it takes. In the changing of seasons it is important to remind ourselves to be gentle; to let go of that which needs to be shed and to welcome in the new growth.
welcome to our september pānui
E koekoe te tuī, e ketekete te kākā, e kūkū te kererū
When all the birds are singing the forest is thriving.
We are now only weeks away from our general election.
It is a privilege to be in a country where we are free to vote without coercion. It is our right and our responsibility as members of our wider community to participate in voting, even when we don’t know who to vote for. This is how our different voices are heard and contribute.
welcome to our august pānui
“Manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata, haere whakamua”.
By caring for the land and the people the future will be prosperous.
As we huddled together across Aotearoa during the crisp Matariki nights, gazing towards the stars and remembering those who have shaped us, the Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger strategic leadership and kaimahi team were taking a few tentative steps into that newness. We give thanks and offer our dreams for the year ahead:
matariki - te tau hau māori
Behold Tupuānuku, of the fertile soil, spread your plenty across the land.
Reveal the bounty of Rongoā, Indeed!
We see and feel heartened by Tupuānuku, one of the nine Matariki stars connected to our kai and our rongoā that are grown in the soil or harvested from the ground. At this time we gently remind ourselves of, and reflect on, the importance of our soil and all the life forces it contains that contribute to our harvests, nurturing and producing our kai atua.
Welcome to our June 2023 Pānui
Ko te pae tawhiti whāia kia tata,
ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tina.
Seek out distant horizons and cherish those you attain.
It has been an incredible privilege to journey with you all during these last four years of the Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective, as we’ve explored our shared purpose, partnerships, and deep relationships to create meaningful systemic change around food security.