Countdown Food Rescue receives two awards

Countdown Food Rescue receives two awards

The Foodbank Project: Highly Commended for Excellence in Social innovation at Innovation Awards

Countdown Food Rescue: Highly Commended at the WasteMINZ Awards for Excellence in communication, engagement or education

21 October 2016: The Foodbank Project, New Zealand’s first online foodbank, has won Highly Commended for Excellence in Social Innovation at last night’s New Zealand Innovation Awards.

The Foodbank Project is a collaboration between Countdown, The Salvation Army, and Nelson based web developer Lucid. The Foodbank Project enables food to be quickly, easily and securely donated online to fill Salvation Army food parcels. Since launching in September 2015, New Zealanders have donated more than $123,000 of food to people in need through this online platform.

The Project complements Countdown’s Food Rescue Programme which donates food from its supermarkets to foodbanks around the country. Earlier in the week, Countdown Food Rescue received a Highly Commended at the WasteMINZ Awards for Excellence in the best communication, engagement or education initiative category. Each year millions of dollars of food are diverted from the waste stream and made available for charity partners.

Countdown is involved in The Foodbank Project on a not-for-profit basis, and delivers the donated items to The Salvation Army foodbanks through its online shopping network, and donates any profits from items delivered to fund the site. So far Countdown has donated more than $18,000.

Countdown’s General Manager Corporate Affairs James Walker says that the award is a testament to the efforts of innovative work of Countdown, The Salvation Army, and Lucid.

“The collaboration between Countdown, The Salvation Army, and Lucid has resulted in a highly successful online donation service, which uses Countdown’s nationwide delivery network to help connect donors with The Salvation Army through the click of a button. The programme is continuing to expand, extending to Whangerai, Gisborne and Nelson this week,” says Mr Walker.

The Salvation Army’s Public Relations Director Shane Chisholm says The Foodbank Project has been a huge success since its launch, and they are thrilled to have won this award for the programme.

“Thanks to the generosity of so many New Zealanders, The Foodbank Project has seen some great results over the last year, and we hope that as the project extends to support more communities around the country, it will continue to grow,” says Mr Chisholm.

Ends

About Countdown

Countdown is one of New Zealand’s largest employers with more than 18,000 team members across 184 supermarkets, distribution centres, processing plants and support offices. We serve 2.7 million customers every week, and work with 4000 suppliers and farmers throughout New Zealand. The Countdown Kids Hospital Appeal has raised more than $9.3 million in the past nine years for children’s hospital wards around the country and Countdown Food Rescue donates more than $3.5 million of food each year to The Salvation Army and other food bank charity partners.www.countdown.co.nz

© Scoop Media