Food for Thought

We have a long-term partnership with Food for Thought, a free nutritional education programme run through schools. Along with in-class learning sessions, led by a nutritionist or Heart Foundation nutritional advisor, Food for Thought participants (year five and six students) visit local New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square stores to learn what to look for on food labels and how to make healthy choices when grocery shopping. They learn guidelines around healthy consumption of fat, sugar, salt and dietary fibre - and we've even seen some influence their whānau to make healthier choices during the grocery shop.

 

Learn more about the Food for Thought programme.

New World Family2Family

Our national New World Family2Family Appeal lets our customers make a food donation to a local City Mission alongside their regular shop. Customers have the option to purchase a pre-filled paper bag of 'food bank friendly' products for $20 or can choose the items they would like to donate. As part of the nationwide campaign, New World donated $500,000 to the City Missions and local food banks, and worked with suppliers to facilitate product donations to the City Missions.

PAKcanSAVE

Through our national PAK'nSAVE appeal, we've helped generous customers donate tens of thousands of canned food donations over the last few years. It's an easy way we've helped customers give what they can for those struggling with food insecurity. PAK'nSAVE has also topped up these donations with a financial contribution, donating $200,000 to food bank and food rescue organisations.

Supporting our local food banks

Many of our stores partner with local foodbanks to make sure edible food can go to individuals who are struggling with food insecurity. In FY23 we donated 1.43 million ‘equivalent meals’ to Food Rescue and foodbank organisations, and we continue to work with organisations like the New Zealand Food Network (NZFN) and Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance (AFRA) to make sure that consumable food goes to people instead of landfill.

Healthier Own Brands

We're committed to providing our customers healthy and affordable options through our Own Brands. In partnership with the Heart Foundation, we're working on making sure that 70% or more of our Own Brand products meet the Heart Foundation nutritional criteria (in categories where it applies). We're also displaying the Health Star Rating on all relevant Own Brand products to make it easier for our customers to make healthier choices.

FSSI Community Trust

We've been supporting our local communities to thrive through the Foodstuffs South Island Community Trust since 2007. The Trust offers financial support to community groups, schools and local organisations as well as individuals. We provide emergency support in times of need and partner with many local organisations to make sure funding goes where it is most needed in our communities.

 

Find out more about our Community Trust.

Supporting emerging suppliers

We’re proud to provide a platform for Kiwi FMCG innovators to showcase their unique products. We’ve worked in collaboration with our sister co-op, Foodstuffs North Island, Ministry of Awesome, New Zealand Food Innovation Network, phd, Socialites and Strategy Creative to host the annual FoodStarter competition to help small-scale and start-up suppliers grow their business. And we’ve recently launched Foodstuffs Emerge as the evolution of the FoodStarter competition, so we can continue to foster innovation in our industry and support aspiring suppliers.

Giving back to our communities

Our locally based Owner Operators work in the heart of their communities. They know their communities well and are passionate about supporting areas where they see the greatest need, including through financial giving. For a snapshot of how we’ve given back to our communities over the last year, check out our annual report.

Supporting our people to learn

We create successful communities by investing in our people, helping them gain knowledge, skills and qualifications, and equipping them for meaningful careers. We offer learning opportunities in every area of our co-op. Find out more about our learning programmes here.

Growing our people into leaders

We believe that our commitment to developing strong, empathetic leaders is an investment in both our Cooperative and our communities. Our people tell us that the skills and experience they gain through the FSSI Leadership Academy supports them to build a meaningful career and have a greater influence in their sports and social clubs, charitable groups, and even as a parent.

Supporting the wellbeing of our teams

We’re committed to supporting the wellbeing of our teams and making sure everyone goes home safe every day. We’re focused providing our teams with resources that enable mental and physical health, including Being Well Plus, a self-service portal, built on the four pillars of wellness with guides and resources on eating, sleeping, moving and thinking well.

 

We’ve also implemented SOTER – a high-tech solution that improves manual handling techniques – to support our operational teams to lift and move products more effectively, and we’ve improved our package of health monitoring, early intervention support, and pre-employment physical health assessments.

Reducing our carbon emissions

The two biggest sources of our carbon emissions are refrigeration and transport – so we’ve focused on reducing emissions in these areas so our efforts can have the biggest impact. We’ve implemented strategies in these areas, including a transition of our store refrigeration natural CO2 refrigerants, reducing our transport emissions via route optimisations and finding more ways to optimise power usage instore. We're continuing to look into more options for reducing our emissions, such as transitioning more of our fleet to electric vehicles and adding more charging stations at store sites for customers.

Reducing our food waste

Our stores partner with local food rescue organisations to make sure edible food doesn't go to waste. Many of our stores also partner with local farmers to dispose of organic store waste responsibly via animal feed and compost. Our goal is to make sure no food waste goes to landfill.

Minimising our waste

We're committed to reducing waste wherever we can, and currently we divert 77% of store waste from landfill through food rescues, reusable alternatives, and responsible disposal of recyclables and organic waste. We've partnered with CHEP to transition all produce from cardboard to crate, saving the equivalent of 46,504 wheelie bins (240L) of cardboard from supplier to DC to store. We also save around 14,000 rolls of single-use pallet wrap every year with reusable Green Spider pallet wraps.

Kai Commitment

We've signed up to the Kai Commitment to show our dedication to reducing food waste and related emissions across our part of the food supply chain. Our goal is to reach zero food waste by 2027

Food in the Nude

Many items in our produce department already come with their own packaging - so where possible we've removed single use packaging from our produce department in New World stores. To keep our ‘naked’ produce fresh, we use a timed mister system in store without need for plastic.

Responsible and Ethical Sourcing

Our national Own Brands team continues to develop policies and position statements that reflect our focus on ethically sourced products. These address modern slavery, cage-free eggs, responsible timber, bamboo, pulp and paper, sustainable palm oil, and responsible seafood. To ensure our processes and policies are robust and deliver strong environmental and social outcomes, we’re continuing our work with external stakeholders and experts including SEDEX, Forest Stewardship Council, Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil and the Marine Stewardship Council.

Sustainable Packaging

Packaging serves an important role in food and grocery retail to protect goods, extend shelf-life and communicate vital information to our customers.
We’re committed to improving the sustainability of our packaging and are working hard to reduce the environmental impact of our packaging. We’ve also developed 10 Packaging Principles to keep our work focused and aligned with creating a circular economy for packaging materials in New Zealand.
Our goal is to have 100% of our retail and private label packaging across all packaging types made of materials that are recyclable, home compostable or reusable by 2025.