Every morning, Halo Trust sets out in a small refrigerated van to distribute food to hungry people across Tokoroa. Marina Pullen and her team of volunteers take kai donated by Countdown, and give it to children, the elderly, and families. Trinity Lands is proud to support Marina’s relentless drive to make a difference in our community.

At 9.15am on a wet Wednesday, the gates at the back of Countdown Tokoroa are unlocked and the Halo Trust van reverses up to the loading bay.

Marina Pullen started the Halo Trust with her own car, her own money, and a world of determination. Now she has a $34,000 refrigerated van, donated by Trinity Lands.

As drizzle falls, Marina’s team works swiftly to pack around 65kg of rescued food in to the cold back of the van, ready for distribution across Tokoroa.

Countdown has ambitious goals towards zero food waste to landfill so it supports many food rescue charities around the country. To ensure rescued food is safe and suitable for consumption, there are strict parameters to protect the end consumer. For example, Countdown will not donate any food which is past its use-by date, but it will donate some foods with a longer shelf-life, such as chips or bread, which are past their best-before date.

Marina says charity recipients know the items she delivers will not have a long shelf-life. Much of the food is eaten the day it’s delivered, but sometimes recipients will freeze items such as bread and defrost it bun by bun, slice by slice to stretch it out over the week.

Previously, these items were fed to livestock or sent to landfill; now they feed families. Marina says the Countdown supermarkets in her area have been enthusiastic in their support of her food rescue mission.

Today Marina is training up volunteers Paula and Bucky. Most days the food goes to organisations; other days it goes to homes – targeting single elderly people who cannot drive, and hungry multiple-children families.

One day, Marina visited a family that she knew was struggling, and asked if they needed any food. The mother explained it was her son’s 7th birthday and she had nothing to feed him. On that day, Marina’s haul from Countdown included chips, donuts, jellies, cupcakes and other party food; small treats that made a birthday boy feel special and celebrated.

First stop today is the Tokoroa Senior Citizens Club. Manager Lyn Campbell says since 1980, the centre has been putting on a meal twice a week so its 62 members, aged 50-plus, have the opportunity to eat an affordable, freshly-cooked meal with their friends.

“It’s about companionship,” Lyn says. The canned goods, pizza bases, and baked treats she receives from Halo help stretch the meal further, so she can ensure a filling spread without raising the cover charge from $7 a head.

Lyn sorts through the day’s delivery. She sets aside scones for morning tea for a group that are gathering around a table to do crafts. She puts some bread in the freezer to make bread & butter pudding at the next community meal. And she reminds each person who comes through the door to take a packet of rolls or loaf of bread home.

Next stop is South Waikato Adult Education, an organisation which teaches and supports young people who have been excluded from mainstream education.

The programme manager is Moana “Monz” Tiaki. The donated food allows the staff and young people to break bread together, building companionship and forging bonds, and it also supplements what the students are eating outside of class time.

“For us, these are some of the most vulnerable kids in the district. If they have got a full belly, they can learn.”

Last stop this morning is Arohanui Kindergarten, where head teacher Beverly Hall comes bounding up the path to welcome the van, followed closely by a parade of pre-schoolers towing trolleys.

The children transfer bags of bread rolls from Marina’s trays in to their trolleys, then steer their haul inside to the kitchen.

Beverly says the 40 children on her role are very well-fed.

But the kindy is proud to be able to offer milk and bread to families, knowing it reduces waste going to landfill. It’s also a gesture of kaitiakitanga; a way of caring for families that are part of the kindy whanau.

At every stop, Marina is enveloped in hugs. She earns so much less than she did when working in insurance in Wellington, but she’s happy.

“This town needs food.”

With financial top-ups from her parents, and inspired by the work of Kaivolution food rescue in Hamilton, Marina set up the trust in Taupo in 2017.

Marina relocated from Taupo to Tokoroa last year, to concentrate on establishing Halo in the South Waikato town and neighbouring Putaruru. She also has Halo food rescue operations in Levin and Waikanae, and she is planning to reach more communities and expand her offering. She dreams of being able to give families pyjamas, books, toiletries.

Marina says the refrigerated van has expanded her capacity and reach.

“I’m just so grateful to Trinity Lands. The van makes me smile! It has flowers and the Halo blue and it has helped us take this work to a whole new level.”

EmpowermentNZ offers Te Puke’s needy everything from a shower, to a meal, to counselling. The community hub welcomes the homeless, the lonely and – increasingly – the working poor, and surrounds them with support, education and love. Trinity Lands is proud to be EmpowermentNZ’s largest corporate donor, enabling the phenomenal work they do for those struggling in the heart of Kiwifruit country.

Jo was living in a car in Te Puke, fearful and suicidal, when she heard about EmpowermentNZ.

She came for a free shower and a feed, but stayed for the support, encouragement and educational courses which have turned her life around. EmpowertmentNZ’s social work manager Deborah Nicol secured Jo emergency housing but, recently, Jo achieved a significant milestone by transitioning in to a boarding situation.

Today, rather than accepting a free hamper from the hub’s food bank, she has saved up to pay $10 for one. It is a gesture which demonstrates that she is growing in independence every week.
“It teaches me to be independent and not rely on them when I don’t need to. It’s very empowering.”

EmpowermentNZ is a social service provider just off Te Puke’s main street. It is run by trained staff and committed volunteers who offer a programme of courses and services which support Te Puke’s socially disadvantaged to rebuild their lives.

Some clients have debilitating mental health conditions, some are victims of fractious relationships, some have encountered more bad luck than seems possible. They come to EmpowermentNZ by referral from another agency, or word of mouth.

An elderly man walks in the door with a bag.

“I hear I can have a shower here?”

An hour later he is clean, smiling, sitting at a table eating piping hot scrambled eggs amongst new friends.

Trinity Lands is the largest of a handful of corporate donors who enable EmpowermentNZ to offer a wide range of opportunities. Social work manager Deborah Nicol says she is so grateful for the support of Trinity Lands and other horticulture companies, who demonstrate a commitment to the town at the centre of New Zealand’s thriving kiwifruit industry.

The EmpowermentNZ hub runs its own services – such as budgeting advice, advocacy, and the food bank – but it is also available as a venue for other community programmes.
Hāpai Māmā is a 9-week childbirth and parenting course with an emphasis on Te Ao Māori. Programme manager Waikamania Thompson-Dinsdale brings in a host of speakers to cover topics as diverse as traditional Māori birth practices, family tax credits and correct fitting of car seats.

The bonds created in the group as are important as the knowledge they gain.

“We are hoping to build a community of māmā so when we’re not around, they can lean on each other.”

First-time mother Alamoni Taufa, 19, says she doesn’t know many women her age who are pregnant, so the course is helping connect her with a network of young people going through the same experience. Te Arani Edwards is pregnant with her fifth baby. She says she keeps coming along to the course during each of her pregnancies because she continues to learn, and enjoys supporting the new mums.

At one recent Tuesday session, Rongoa specialist Kimi Peachy talks about traditional remedies, using everyday items such as honey, garlic and onions to boost mothers’ immune systems.
The next morning, local hairdresser Shar Singleton sets up a salon in a corner of the main room to offer free haircuts for staff, volunteers and clients.

After a hot meal of scrambled eggs, with her newly-purchased food hamper by her feet, Jo lines up for the first haircut she’s had in years – and reflects on the impact the EmpowermentNZ hub has had on her life.

“It’s been a really rough year and without these guys, I probably wouldn’t be here – and that’s no exaggeration,” Jo says.

“They gave me hope when I had none.”

House of Science is a programme which supplies schools with ready-made science kits to ignite a love of science in young minds. It is credited with making science fun for a generation of Kiwi kids who will have opportunities for careers in related areas such as engineering, innovation and product development. Trinity Lands has funded the establishment of a South Waikato branch of the not-for-profit organisation, and committed to keeping it going for the next three years.

Olive Mills loves science. The nine-year-old from Karapiro School peers out from below her eyebrows and opens her eyes wide.

“What I like about science is that you never know what is going to happen so you kinda just like test something and then you’re like: Wow! Look at that.”

Olive’s science learning is supported by resources provided by an innovative in-school programme called House of Science. The programme was founded in Tauranga as a way to tune Kiwi kids in to the oft-maligned, but increasingly important, subject. Kits covering a world of scientific topics are delivered to schools in giant plastic buckets, ready to be dealt out, ripped in to, and discovered by eager young scientists.

Karapiro School, near Cambridge, has 67 kids. It is in the process of building a 10sqm science lab.

Principal Tina-Maree Thatcher says House of Science is playing a key role in advancing the school’s science strategy.

“When the very first House of Science kits arrived in our school, the lids were open and the teachers went Wow! This is an amazing resource that we can pick up and use straight away. One kit, and the kids were hooked.”

Room 2 teacher Harriet Embling teaches 8 and 9 year olds. They have done experiments covering the process of condensation, attempted mixing of unmixable liquids, and rocket-making. She says her 13 students have made it clear they would love to do science all day, every day.

“The response to science in my classroom is just overwhelmingly excited.”

Tina-Maree says the kits have developed a deeper understanding of science, and love of the subject, in her school.

“What we noticed about the changes in the children using the House of Science kits is the link with the vocabulary of science, the thinking and learning around science has improved, and the children have been able to use real-life resources and technologies that are associated with the science curriculum. We’ve got some great science thinkers”.

Vivienne Clarke is general manager of House of Science, South Waikato. Trinity Lands donated $45,000 to establish the South Waikato branch and pledged another $25,000 a year for the next three years.

“House of Science South Waikato is funded by Trinity Lands,” Vivienne says. “Without Trinity Lands we would not exist – they’ve enabled us to get up and going.”

There are more than 80 primary schools in the South Waikato and in just under two years, House of Science has been invited to lend its resources to 26 of them. Surveys show 75 percent of teachers feel more confident to teach science when using House of Science kits.

Luke Goodwin is a former high school teacher, a parent of children at Karapiro School, and a trustee of one of the Trinity Lands owner trusts, Longview Trust.

As a parent, he has noticed the House of Science programme is making a difference to the way his own children talk about science and their attitudes to the subject.

“They’re way more jazzed about it than I can imagine myself being when I was their age.

Luke married in to a family which descends from the original trust founders and he says it is gratifying to see the impact Trinity Lands’ charitable grants are having in the community.

“It’s really gratifying to see the things you are funding are making a difference.”

A brand new $185,000 state-of-the-art St Johns ambulance has hit the roads of South Waikato today thanks to the generosity of Trinity Lands, a set of trust farms farming for good to give their profits back to the community and good causes.

Another truck has also hit the road thanks to the farmers giving an additional $50,000 for a refrigerated truck for Good Neighbour, a Bay of Plenty charity which re-distributes food to local people in need.

Farmer and MD of Trinity Lands Ian Elliott says: “it’s a privilege for us to be able to donate to these amazing charities. Our purpose at Trinity Lands is to farm for good, to give our profits back into local and community good projects and we’ve made these donations as part of our 65th birthday celebrations.

“We are just delighted to have been able to help get these two trucks on the road before Christmas, which sadly, is a time when there is so much need for both.

“As an organisation Trinity Lands has just celebrated 65 years of farming for good. We are proud of our achievements which are the culmination of the work of hundreds of farmers & orchardists over more than six decades. We believe it is a noble undertaking to make and produce good food from the land but also to be able to do it profitably so we can give back to communities and people in need.

“Most of our management executives have worked without pay for many decades and we honour their contribution to our farms, and to the many good causes we have supported over the years” he says.

Stuart Cockburn, St John Waikato District Operations Manager says “demand for our services has never been greater and as a charity we rely on the generosity of the communities we serve. We never take their trust and support for granted, and are so grateful for the generosity of Trinity Lands. Their contribution will help us make a vast difference in the Waikato community.

Jason Rowling, Trustee and co-founder of Good Neighbour says “Christmas is a time of real need in the Bay of Plenty so the timing of our new refrigerated truck couldn’t have come at a better time. It will make a tangible difference in the lives of many hundreds of families and we are thrilled that Trinity Lands has been so generous at this important time.”