12 minute read
Dairy champion – Wayne Langford and Siobhan O’Malley
Meeting NZ’s needs
By Ross Nolly
Hard times can hit the best of us and at any time, but two initiatives launched by two dairy farmers will ensure no one goes hungry.
As we sail through life, we all wish for flat seas and fair winds, which is what we often get, but that can change in an instant. It only takes an unexpected life crisis or major expense to throw us a curveball. During trying times it’s comforting to know that someone is around to “have your back”.
Two New Zealand farmers, Wayne Langford and Siobhan O’Malley, have recently started two charities that will indeed have people’s back when misfortune rears its ugly head.
Wayne and his wife Tyler are dairy farmers from Golden Bay, milking 230 cows once-a-day on their 93 hectare farm. Siobhan and her husband Christopher are 50:50 sharemilkers, milking 400 cows on their 242ha farm at Kokatai on the West Coast.
During 2020, Wayne donated mince to a foodbank as part of his YOLO Farmer journey daily challenges. Each day he looks to accomplish something to say that he’s lived for that day.
On seeing how little meat was needed to feed his local community, it prompted him to create a charity to help those in need. In the midst of the 2020 covid-19 lockdown, Langford started Meat the Need.
Meat the Need is a nationally-based charity designed to supply much-needed meat to City Missions and foodbanks. The meat is donated by farmers, processed, packed and delivered to those in need.
To date, the charity has processed more than 883 animals and provided 408,783 meals to hungry Kiwis. Meat the Need aims to double its achievements and deliver nearly one million meals in its second year.
“I was speaking at a Christchurch conference and there happened to be a Silver Fern Farms representative in the crowd who told me it was something they’d like to be a part of. It would have been a very difficult programme to implement without a significant national processor on board.” Wayne says.
“MPI provided funding to help us get up and going for the first three years. I think the Government recognised that we’re the best people to be working in this space.
“I think they’re achieving a fantastic result from the money they’ve invested and we’re only just getting started. We also received help from DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb and Federated Farmers to build awareness.”
He underestimated the food safety requirements needed to supply meat to foodbanks. It was never going to be a case of getting the local butcher of a home-kill business to process the meat and the local Young Farmers Club to bag it up. They needed Silver Fern Farms’ expertise to guide them through that process.
As dairy farmers, they began considering whether they could start a similar charity for donated milk.
In 2020 they received government funding to set up a dairy supply along the same lines as Meat the Need. Their Feed Out charity arose from that initiative.
“I contacted a number of milk suppliers. It only took one phone call to the Māori-owned Miraka milk company to receive a resounding ‘yes’. Miraka farmers donate the milk and the company processes it,” Siobhan says.
Wayne feels that one key to the project’s success is that everyone involved from the farm to the foodbank are donating their produce or services. It is significantly different to previous models.
“Feed Out is an extension of Meat the Need. When it was launched there were a number of farmers who wanted to donate milk. So far, we’ve had 22,000l of milk donated, which is awesome. But to
Dairy farmers Siobhan O’Malley and Wayne Langford joined forces to create the Meat the Need and Feed Out charities in which farms donate meat and milk to foodbanks and City Missions.
“Feed Out is an extension of Meat the Need. When it was launched there were a number of farmers who wanted to donate milk. So far, we’ve had 22,000l of milk donated, which is awesome. But to put things in perspective, that’s not even a tanker full.” Wayne Langford
put things in perspective, that’s not even a tanker full,” Wayne says.
“We could produce 120,000 breakfasts from one tanker of milk. It’s amazing to think what we can produce from just one tanker when there are so many tankers leaving each factory every day. It demonstrates the scale and volume of what we produce and what could be done with a very small portion of the nation’s milk supply.”
Farmers don’t often think of their milk in terms of literage because they’re accustomed to dealing in kilograms of milksolids.
A 1000l of milk doesn’t seem like a great amount compared to the many thousands of litres each farm produces. But when packaged and delivered to a foodbank that milk makes a massive difference to their community.
“One of Feed Out’s milk suppliers was present when Miraka produced their first run of milk. She’d donated 1000l of milk and was standing next to a pallet stacked with 800l of packaged UHT milk. I said ‘do you realise that you donated more than that?’ She was blown away by how many cartons of milk came from her donation,” Wayne says.
Siobhan feels that one of the great aspects about Feed Out is the huge impact farmers can make by donating something that in the scheme of their business may not be that much, but has a massive impact when it reaches the foodbank.
If only .0002% of the nation’s beef kill was donated to Meat the Need it would be enough to achieve the goal of supplying one mince pack in every food parcel annually.
“New Zealand processes nearly 26 million animals per year and we’ve calculated that we would need around 5500 to achieve our goal. It’s just a fraction of the total number,” Wayne says.
“When you look at the numbers, we don’t think our goals are unachievable. We think we’re onto something pretty special. It’s doable and we can make a substantial difference with a tiny percentage of the nation’s meat and milk supply.”
The charities have had approximately 360 requests from foodbanks. Meat isn’t a product that they typically receive. Often the foodbanks have to purchase it. The pair realised that if they could supply meat, the foodbanks can shift their resources to other areas.
People go to foodbanks when an unexpected event or expense has
To date, Meat the Need has processed more than 883 animals and provided 408,783 meals to hungry Kiwis through food parcels.
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Golden Bay farmer Wayne Langford started Meat the Need during the 2020 lockdown when he donated mince to a local foodbank. He now has contact with 45 charities across New Zealand.
Grant Jackson from Miraka Milk and Wayne Langford celebrate the launch of Feed Out, which is supplying milk for food parcels.
occurred and they can’t afford to feed their family. Each year approximately 500,000 food parcels are distributed in NZ. The trusts aim to put a carton of milk and a pack of mince into each one.
Mince was the meat product that the foodbanks requested. It’s simple to cook, incredibly versatile and easily bulked out. It works well with the typical ingredients in the households of those who are most vulnerable. The 500g export-quality mince packs are perfect for a family of four and two packs can be used for larger families.
“Many recipients haven’t eaten meat in weeks. Most farmers have a freezer full of home-killed meat and some don’t realise that the cost of meat is beyond many people’s budget. I’d love 500g of mince to go into every food parcel. We’d need 250,000kg of mince to do that,” Siobhan says.
Christchurch City Mission told them the average food parcel recipient receives 2.6 food parcels per year. It destroys the stereotype that people turn up every week looking for a handout. The reality is that asking for help is usually the last resort for those in need.
“Initially I thought we’d be working with the homeless, but it has predominantly been the “working poor” who’ve needed our support. We produce so much food in New Zealand it must be possible to supply enough to ensure that nobody goes hungry,” Wayne says.
When Meat the Need was launched, they were intending to focus on Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. However, farmers quickly told them that they wanted to supply their local foodbanks first.
“Hence, we’ve gone quite regional with our approach. The rural foodbanks don’t require as much in comparison to what is typically donated to their big city counterparts,” he says.
“For example, Wanaka takes the average value of three lambs per month. When you consider how many lambs are in the high country it’s not even a drop in the ocean.”
When a farmer donates a beef animal it supplies a small regional foodbank for months.
The charities are operated with less than one full-time labour equivalent. All administration, marketing and advertising costs are covered by grants and donations.
“One hundred percent of every donation goes to the foodbanks. We have extremely lean running costs due to piggybacking off Silver Fern Farms and Miraka’s existing supply chain,” Siobhan says.
They feel that as primary producers it’s important for farmers to do their bit. They would like to see a good proportion of farmers donate something every year. This would show that farmers who make up a minority of the population can directly impact the minority who struggle.
Siobhan says that the Feed Out initiative is extremely exciting because milk is very scalable. If every farmer donated 1000l once per season, it would make a massive difference to many lives.
“Both charities reconnect farmers with food. One of the points we wanted to demonstrate when we started the charities was to show that farmers are a very generous and caring part of the community,” she says.
“They’re providing a highly nutritious
protein source to foodbanks. Over 430,000 meals-worth of mince has been provided that did not previously exist in that community space.”
Meat the Need and Feed Out are fully registered charities and all donations are tax deductible.
Farmers don’t need to be Silver Fern Farms suppliers to donate meat, but must be Miraka suppliers to donate milk. It’s not their specific milk or animal that is donated. They donate the value of the beef animal and the milk comes from the overall pool.
“The donation process is very simple. Farmers only need to visit the Feed Out website to make a donation. To donate a beef animal, you simply tell your stock agent that you want one to go to Meat the Need,” Wayne says.
“Farmers have always been very giving. Rural communities have been built on donations from farmers and the work they’ve done. Both charities are creating a message that farming is more than just about profit and a bottom line. We’re playing our part in the community.”
Both trusts are helping bridge the rural/urban divide by providing contact between both communities.
Wayne now has contact with 45 foodbanks throughout the country. Every time he contacts them he tells them how things are going on the farm.
In turn, those foodbanks reached out to him during the recent Canterbury floods to check how he and the other farmers who had donated were faring.
“Our food labels state that the food has been donated by farmers. People who’re really struggling receive a positive message that farmers are there to look out for them and care about their welfare,” he says.
Both charities give farmers a sense of connection back to their community and demonstrate that their farms are more than just a business. Farmers not only want to donate, they are asking if they can do more.
“Farmers come to us because they wholeheartedly believe in the cause. We aim to grow our volume and the awareness of who we are and what we do,” he says.
“We want our network to become part of every urban and rural community. I often say that as farmers it’s our job to feed our community and we need to do that before we send food overseas.” n
Miraka supplier Lisa Kearins donated 1000 litres of milk to the Feed Out charity.
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