The pandemic has given us the chance to build a more secure, sustainable, resilient food system – one that is healthier and supports people more fairly. This is the second essay in a new series examining the effects of Covid-19 on New Zealand, in partnership with Te Pūnaha Matatini.

Wednesday is hāngī day at the Papatoetoe Food Hub. People come from across Auckland to collect authentic hāngī, cooked in the ground. For the same cost as hitting the drive-through, you can eat delicious, nutritious food prepared in the community – and your money is going to stay there. But this vital community food source was suddenly cut off in March 2020 when the country went into lockdown.

The restrictions imposed to manage Covid-19 laid bare existing vulnerabilities in Aotearoa’s food system. Many people were suddenly unable to access or afford food. This reveals both the economic and social risks of concentrating power and money into just a few large food companies, and the reliance on global supply chains for key goods.

New Zealand’s current food system focuses on yield and profit. Large farms are interconnected with wholesalers, distributors, brokers and marketers, and directed by two dominant supermarkets and their global partners.

Before the pandemic, by conventional economic metrics, this system was in an encouraging position. In mid-2019 the Situation Outlook for Primary Industries report showed booming exports for the second year in a row, with dairy and meat forecast to increase 5.7% and 6.4% respectively on 2018 export revenue, and horticulture an impressive 13.7%.

But this mirage of security evaporated with the Covid-19 pandemic. We know that more shocks and crises are coming. We have the chance to build a more secure, sustainable, resilient food system – one that is healthier and supports people more fairly.

Growing an environmentally clean, socially inclusive food economy is not just aspirational – it’s within our grasp. Even better, we already have the knowledge and tools to help us do this.

Community organisations have been dealing with the consequences of inequity and the inadequacies in our food systems for decades. They have worked in challenging circumstances to make changes to local food systems. This work has generated a huge amount of local knowledge and laid the foundations on which we can build back a food system better than what existed pre-Covid-19.

Doughnuts

Kate Raworth is here to help, with her concept of Doughnut Economics. In opposition to the 20th-century economic orthodoxy of perpetual growth, Raworth argues for a 21st-century economy that thrives, rather than grows.

She visualises this approach with two concentric radar charts depicting human wellbeing encompassed within two boundaries: social and ecological. Picture it as a doughnut, with the minimum social standards as the inner ring, and the ecological limits of the planet as the outer ring.

In between those two limits is where humans can thrive, and where everyone has what they need: from safe water and healthy food to political voice, peace and justice.

This concept reminds us we are deeply interconnected, both with each other and with the physical and living worlds in which we exist. We need to find a balance that prevents communities and families from falling into the doughnut hole where human rights are limited and unequal, and simultaneously avoid overreaching the Earth’s ecological limits.

We neglect the natural environment through conventional economics including orthodox short-term accounting practices. The Environment Aotearoa 2019 report tolled alarming farming-related soil and water quality degradation, biodiversity loss, marine overharvesting effects and climate change contributions from food production.

We know that this environmental damage will, in turn, have severe long-term consequences for wellbeing in Aotearoa. But our health is already affected by the types of food available for us to eat. We have one of the highest rates of obesity in the world – a risk factor for many health conditions.

And the causes of obesity are distributed unequally, with some communities drenched in high numbers of fast-food outlets and ubiquitous marketing of unhealthy products. At the same time, these communities lack access to affordable fresh fruit and vegetables, with not enough money for kids’ breakfasts or lunches, limited green spaces and poor urban design that fails to encourage exercise.

Rather than measuring our food sector through its contribution to GDP, maybe we should be asking how it enables equitable living standards, supports a right to thrive, and contributes to social solidarity and vibrant individuals and communities.

By imaginatively rebuilding food production, distribution and consumption in Aotearoa after Covid-19 we can create greater food security in uncertain times, as well as re-establish flourishing lives – and livelihoods.

Where we can start from

Kate Raworth recently downscaled the Doughnut to the level of the city. She combined local aspiration – to be thriving people in a thriving place – with a global responsibility to live in ways that respect all people and the whole planet.

Sustainable food systems play a huge role in achieving both these goals. They give us access to affordable, nourishing, nutrient dense, sustainable and locally produced food. They also support farming operations, big and small.

They move us from the conventional, globalised model of productivist food systems to one that embraces connections with households, marae, community gardens, schools, small food outlets, markets, smallholder farms and local organisations, as well as the nearby natural environment.

Sustainable food systems are already happening, and they contribute significantly to food production. A 2010 study showed that 67 community gardens in New York with 1.7 acres in production yielded about 87,690 pounds (approximately US$214,060) of food. A similar study conducted in Philadelphia indicated US$4.9 million worth of food was produced over the 2008 summer.

Many local communities in Aotearoa have also begun this transition. Healthy Families South Auckland, an initiative run by The Cause Collective and The Southern Initiative, was reimagining more resilient food systems in South Auckland long before Covid-19 was a household name.

Together, they have a common goal that all South Aucklanders enjoy good health and wellbeing, enabled by cultural, social and physical environments.

They helped to co-design a vibrant community-run garden in a Sikh temple in Takanini and piloted a community garden on disused land at Al-Madinah School in Māngere.

The Sikh Temple Gurdwara Sri Kalgidhar Sahib feeds thousands of people in South Auckland for free every week. Produce is grown in its gardens – planted and harvested by volunteers, students and community service workers.

The Southern Initiative and Healthy Families South Auckland also developed the Good Food Roadmap, an action plan for a sustainable food system that applies doughnut economics to South Auckland.

“The Good Food Roadmap is a framework for people who already know that they want to work in this space,” says Julio Bin from The Southern Initiative and Healthy Families South Auckland. “It’s a unifying message with a kind of a strategic aim.”

The five steps of the Good Food Roadmap are:

1. Access to nourishing food
2. Self-determining and mana-enhancing participation in the food system
3. Reflecting our local cultural diversity in our food system
4. The best food choice as the easiest food choice
5. Resilience in our food system around waste, surplus and production

Sharing goals means that anyone can adopt the Good Food Roadmap in their work while contributing to the wider food system.

This is exactly what Healthy Families South Auckland achieves by supporting the community-operated Papatoetoe Food Hub.

Papatoetoe Food Hub

The Papatoetoe Food Hub serves fresh, locally produced food at different prices to accommodate different financial circumstances.

Like other community food organisers, the Papatoetoe Food Hub found that Covid-19 created the conditions to pause and reflect. They were forced to make decisions which transformed their supply of food to the community in positive ways.

When Covid-19 hit, everything had to stop and they had a month to think. “I think it was very valuable,” says Bin. “We restructured the whole menu, the whole place, for pickup and delivery. And that was going to be, like, phase three of the project and suddenly became phase one.”

Their community changed too. Bin says that pre-Covid-19, “it was going really well and suddenly poof, zero.” When the Food Hub started up again after lockdown, they had their busiest month ever. “July was just, like, a triple of all the previous sales,” says Bin. “I think the relationship with food changed. People were relating to the food hub in a different way. It’s really coming from the heart – a little bit of kindness in every transaction.”

“Farmers from Pukekohe brought up a tonne of vegetables like carrots, onions, and pumpkins that they couldn’t sell because of lockdown. They peeled it all and they turned it into soup for the local schools and libraries. They did that to give back to the community, because they had all this produce that was going to go to waste. It’s built up real good spirit in the community. And I think that’s probably meant a lot in terms of people wanting to go there. People had more time, and sales increased because people are buying local.”

The infrastructure available through the Papatoetoe Food Hub’s public-private-community partnership encourages people to work equitably with iwi, community, businesses and public organisations to create connections and lower barriers.

“We’re using under-utilised council space that was earmarked for development,” explains Bin. “It’s one of hundreds of properties that council own – it was just there. The business model was all about lowering the overhead costs, like lease and power and things like that, to lower the cost of food.”

“If you go there, you won’t see any logo or anything related to council. It’s about locals owning the whole kaupapa and actually taking it further. It is working right now so we know there is a model that’s replicable and we can do that in other places.”

This exemplifies the sort of collective, collaborative, insight-gathering approach to improving community wellbeing that holds much promise for rebuilding Aotearoa in the wake of Covid-19.

It was important to have low start-up costs for the Food Hub to be sustainable. “From the coffee machine to the tables and chairs, everything is upcycled,” says Bin. “Just to prove the concept that you can actually start with a minimum investment. There’s so much resource out there, you know, you just need to find the right people, the right connections, and ask for support.”

Bin says that the Papatoetoe Food Hub is now an example for others. “We’re having more and more visitors coming to get inspiration: What are the policies? What are the roadblocks? Why don’t we have more spaces like this? Why is it so difficult?”

The Hub hasn’t stopped innovating. There are plans for educational workshops, more resources for composting and food growing on site, and intentions to bring back umu, just for starters.

The Southern Initiative is also supporting Māori and Pacific enterprises in government and corporate supply chains. This sort of social procurement is a profound and controllable lever for local development.  

Its importance has been picked up by the Sustainable Business Network, who created a resource that explains how an organisation can directly and deliberately address both its own and wider society’s social challenges through its procurement. The report identifies that change starts with buyers and senior leadership.

The Southern Initiative launched He Waka Eke Noa (now Amotai) in 2017 to connect Māori- and Pacific-owned businesses with buyers wanting to purchase goods, services and works. The name comes from the well-known whakataukī, which translates as “we are all in the canoe, without exception” – acting as a collective, working in unity and leaving no one behind. 

The hub directors are of Māori, Cook Island and South Asian origin. This reflects Papatoetoe demographics and informs the culturally diverse offering on the menu, which has included hāngī, umu and boil-up.

Bin agrees the hub has become a viable alternative to McDonald’s. “It’s having the option of choosing what you want to eat. For the same money they’re going to spend to have bad food, they can have good food, which is made by the community, and the money is going to stay there. And it’s going to generate social good as well.”

Papatoetoe Food Hub rescues 500kg of food headed for disposal each week, mostly from the supermarket 100m down the road. Seventy percent of their dishes are created with upcycled food. On-site composting diverts 100kg of food from landfill each week. That waste feeds into the planter boxes on site, to generate more veggies for the kitchen and experiential learning opportunities for schools.

“The idea is to further develop social enterprises and community networks and opportunities,” says Bin. “Employing someone to look after the compost, being able to put some science into this, to understand the value of soil, get kids involved, it’s all about connecting people back to it.”

Papatoetoe Food Hub’s principles reflect doughnut economics. Bin explains how they operate on the principle of food that’s “good for the pocket, good for the puku, good for the planet”.

“Food is a catalyst for systemic change – it’s not just for conventional notions of ‘health’, but also mental health, environmental purposes, the local economy. We’re using the simplicity of the food message, for the complexity of outcomes.”

Permaculture and regenerative agriculture: Dandelions

In talking with Alice McSherry at the Auckland Permaculture Trust, it’s clear that what we call a “weed” is subjective. When she explains the permaculture principle of using edges and valuing the marginal, she talks about dandelions in particular: “they are nutrient-dense ‘weeds’, a high source of vitamin C, and in the same family as pūhā, would you believe? Medicinal plants are found at the edges.”

Permaculture and regenerative farming operate on the principles of keeping healthy biodiversity, high water quality and carbon sinking in play, while regenerating quality productive soils. It holds much promise, provided it is not thought of as a cookie-cutter solution to manage all environmental quality issues in New Zealand farming, but is used in a bespoke way for particular soils, climates and cultural contexts.

The Auckland Permaculture Trust runs the Auckland Permaculture Workshop, a year-long course that includes putting the principles of ‘fertile gardening’ into practice. McSherry explains “you learn through the process of doing. By acting, and not just thinking, we’ve deepened our engagement with the whole system”.

Community gardening at her local Piritahi Marae on Waiheke Island demonstrated how fragile our food system really is. She describes how pre-Covid-19, the marae garden was a space that had its own limitations ­– mostly the money to buy seedlings, and the time for active stewardship.

Covid-19 created its own disruptions, but it also galvanised people. It felt like a call to action in the gardening community. “Not to romanticise this, but even for people who knew this stuff, it became more important. Life changed. What better time than now to get our hands in the dirt?”

The Piritahi Marae māra kai reinforces community connection: through a rangatahi support programme for education and kitchen literacy, the intergenerational conversations while working in the garden, mutual support for other members’ social enterprises, and also the support for health and wellness, and having a say – and a hand – in how your food is produced.

Community food production

Numerous community gardens around the country showed the benefits of agility and dynamism in small-scale organisations when they changed their operations in response to Covid-19. They got food to communities by innovating online ordering for vegetable box deliveries, online farmers markets and the nationwide Open Food Network.

While the learning curve was steep for some, and administration a challenge, the community benefits were indisputable. Community gardens have been reconfigured not just as producers of food, but as educators ­– re-establishing lost skills around (often urban) food production.   

Andy Boor, a coordinator at Kelmarna Gardens, an established city farm and organic community garden in Auckland, says, “For a lot of people it was a wake-up call, to realise that the food system that we have is not particularly resilient, is not necessarily that interested in what they actually need – and for most people in New Zealand it was the first time in their lives that there has ever been the threat of shortages.”

Their community showed a “post-Covid demand to learn the skills for growing their own food”. The gardens have been able to meet this need by running weekend gardening workshops, which have sold out twice as quickly as before.  There are more people around now who are out of work, which makes the opportunity to gain food-growing knowledge all the more appealing.

“We’re building networks with other small local growers as well. And it’s a way for us to reach people that wouldn’t necessarily find this place on their own,” Boor says.

This sort of local empowerment, with practical knowledge about self-provisioning, might step us away from the hole in the doughnut. But we need to consider who has the time, resources and privilege to be able to participate. A fairer food system would mean that we all could.

How we can get there

The everyday, diverse, small-scale supply of food meets urgent local needs, but we also need to create greater efficiency and resilience. Reorienting our investment into local production, distribution and consumption is a no-brainer. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced countries to implement responses that have undermined food supply chains. Closed borders, missing migrant workers, limited overland, sea and air transport and mandated social distancing have often hampered trade of agricultural goods, food and food-related goods.

Although our government has outlined their optimism for economic buoyancy, this seems an unlikely prospect. The significant debt incurred by the restrictions we undertook to combat Covid-19, compounded with the large government stimulus packages delivered throughout 2020, presents economic challenges.

Those who experienced the hardship of previous recessions are understandably panicked at the potential of Covid-19’s economic fallout. Yet the pandemic is also serving as an opportunity to recognise that our national food system is not fit for purpose.

The optimum food system would achieve environmental, social and economic benefits through farming and food production, distribution and consumption, and would cause no degradation.

The Covid-19 crisis offers an opportunity to think long term ­– and disruptively. Different ways of working do not emerge fully formed. They are embarked upon through the co-development of ideas and practices, as experiments carried out by and within the communities who are invested in them.

For some food producers, there is a feeling that we are faced with an opportunity to re-evaluate procurement options and rethink what is actually of value to New Zealanders.

But for those farms and producers whose businesses need immediate relief, financial security is the urgent, primary motive – and doing something different feels like a huge stretch of mental and physical energy.

While our companies and successive governments have historically subsidised or directly funded a chemical-intensive, monoculture or animal-intensive system of food production, we now have an opportunity to redirect those funds in a different way. Co-governance plays a vital part in enabling such a transition alongside significant financial or other incentives.

New Zealand’s recovery for its food systems should maximise opportunities for Te Tiriti partnership in and among public, private, and community settings – to think about how we “build back better” – creating a national food system and future where people can live regeneratively off the land and sea.

We need to resist the temptation to settle for easy answers that lack ambition or creativity, or that threaten to reactivate a suspended “old normal”. We can learn from what has happened and find the sweetspot in the doughnut where all people have the opportunity to thrive, without offloading the costs of the crisis onto the poorest and devastating the environment as we go.

The primary authors of this story are:

Emma Sharp is a lecturer in Te Kura Mātai Taiao, the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. Her research connects aspects of urban and rural food production and consumption with alternative economies.

Anna Matheson is a senior lecturer in health policy at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. Anna has a background in public health and equity and is interested in effective ways to achieve better community health and wellbeing.

Jonathan Burgess is a senior communications and media adviser at Te Pūnaha Matatini.

Additional contributions were made by:

Alice McSherry serves as the secretary of the Auckland Permaculture Trust and is an active member of the Piritahi Marae māra kai on Waiheke Island.

Julio Bin is the lead for systems innovation with The Southern Initiative and Healthy Families South Auckland.

Andy Boor is the engagement and development manager at Kelmarna Gardens in Auckland.

In an era of online everything, brick-and-mortar retail faces unique challenges. Now Spark is looking to innovative, immersive experiences to keep people coming back.

On the average day, the main commercial artery of Queen Street in Central Auckland sees a fraction of the foot traffic that it did a year ago. The vacant atmosphere is an entirely expected symptom of the arrival of Covid and its resultant economic impacts, but it’s also reflective of a world in which remote working and online shopping were already on the cusp of becoming our new normals.  

For the businesses that have invested a lot in providing a special, face-to-face customer experience, the trends are particularly noticeable. This is true of the new Commercial Bay shopping complex, which was developed over the last decade with the expectation that it would be serving not only the estimated 30,000 workers within a 500m radius of the store, but also the formerly thriving cruise ship market. Having opened after the first Covid-19 lockdown earlier this year to an empty cruise ship terminal and half-empty office buildings, it’s clear that – impressive as it is – the development still has a mountain to climb. 

But because the tourists aren’t going to be returning any time soon – at least not to pre-Covid levels – and the challenges of low foot traffic are likely to remain for some time, Spark’s Commercial Bay store has been trying something new to buck the trend and bring people back through the doors.

While the plan has been in place over two years, over the last month the store has launched a new range of immersive, interactive customer experiences, which aim to create a community space for people to enjoy new products and services. While it’s what you might see in flagship stores in American cities, Josh Parrish, Spark’s brand experience manager, says it’s an entirely new style of engagement for New Zealand. 

“The idea was to launch this as a store for customers to come in and engage with the brand similarly to Nike, Apple and Microsoft. They have flagship stores that are a true representation of their brands, and this creates an experience for customers that makes them fall in love with ours.”

So what exactly has the store been doing? Essentially it has been partnering with large international brands like Microsoft, Samsung and Apple to showcase their products to customers in the flesh. Its first major project was a gaming activation experience in partnership with Logitech, which built racing simulators in the store like an arcade. 

“It highlighted our Microsoft Xbox partnership,” Parrish says. “Customers could book their spot online, then come into store to compete for the fastest lap using the new F1 2020 game.

 “Our gaming customers really loved it. And we had a tonne of engagement on social media with customers tagging friends and commenting, signing up for the time slots to come in and do their time trial. That drove a lot of engagement and a lot of traffic.”

Another feature of the store is seasonal and rolling campaigns, showcased in a pop up space near the entry. Parrish says at the moment it features a Christmas campaign, which is all about offering a wide range of tech gifts at all budget levels. 

“We’ve expanded our product offering to beyond just mobile devices and plans for customers, because we know that this year people will probably be looking for something a bit different.” 

“We have gifts for people who love sport, gaming and music, and of course those who love technology too – our drones and our Sphero products for kids are great examples of what we’re doing there.” 

This also extends through to the Christmas activation, which uses an Xbox Kinect camera to immerse customers in a virtual Christmas world.

“Customers choose their world based on their interests, whether they’re into sport, music or gaming. The camera then superimposes them into this world in the form of a Christmas globe where you can interact with certain elements in the environment. 

“We are looking at adding in the ability to create a GIF while in this snow globe world, which customers will then be able to share with friends and family – like a digital Christmas card, to add some cheer over the holidays.”

Because of its relatively Covid-19 free status, New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world where bringing people back into physical stores is a realistic option. Even still, the rise of e-commerce is here to stay, and it’s likely that the convenience coupled with the constantly looming risk of community transmission has meant many people won’t be hurrying their return to the face-to-face days of old.

 So have Spark’s initiatives succeeded in getting people to visit the new store?

“The gaming activation in the first month was very successful in driving foot traffic,” says Parrish.

“It’s a beautifully designed store. A lot of people are coming in and asking for tours of the space, because it definitely looks like a brand flagship store when you walk up through the three levels.”

The top level of the store has an event space that can hold up to 150 people. Parrish says the space will leverage Spark Lab, which is the business brand, and host events in their Speaker Series as well as live sport screenings 

“You’ll start to see those come online in 2021. We’ll have live events up there for our business customers, and we’ll get inspirational speakers from some of the large international tech companies.”

“Then we’re also looking at doing some Spark Sport viewing sessions. We have a lot of great rights, including the Premier League, the NBA and Formula One, so we’re looking at setting that up in the theatre space because there’s a massive screen up there.

“It’s a great way of hosting our customers who are interested in sports and getting the conversation going about Spark Sport. It’s been a test and learn situation up there.”

However, Parrish says customers have also come into the store asking to rent the space out for private events, or simply use it as a space to hang out.

“There’s also a coffee area upstairs. People are coming up for coffees, hanging out and enjoying the great views across the street.” 

In many ways, it’s the type of retail experience that we’d expect to see more of in New Zealand; an early embrace of new technology to stoke interest and change the way customers engage with retail businesses and their products, rather than just the buy and sell dynamic. Is it something Parrish expects to see emerge in other businesses and other Spark stores?

“There aren’t a lot of retailers doing this,” he says. “As more customers buy online, there needs to be that reason to get customers to come into the store, beyond just purchasing products and services from you.”

While the other Spark stores aren’t as big as the Commercial Bay one, they will be influenced to some degree by the new initiatives.

“We’re currently running a Spark Sport Match Fit education session to get customers ready for the cricket season this month. For that specific piece and for other education pieces, we are looking at expanding to our new stores.”

“All of our new stores have what we’re calling the trust space, which are small conference rooms with all the AV to run these education programmes.”

Despite the challenges facing traditional retail, these initiatives are all part of Spark’s vision for New Zealand to be a leader in the digital world – a view that has been echoed by Jacinda Ardern’s new government as a way to drive the economy forward. 

“It’s about getting customers comfortable with some of the complexities of technology, so that they can weave them into their everyday life,” says Parrish. “And this helps us shift the customer perception of Spark from being a traditional telecommunications company into a digital service company.

As for the Commercial Bay store, Parrish says that despite the challenges, so far innovation appears to be the key to thriving in a post-Covid world.

“Before we opened we were expecting the CBD to be bustling. But now I think we’ve just got to listen, evolve, test, learn and be fluid.”