Nourishing Families at Christmas
Having attended a public forum on child poverty in New Zealand in 2013, Nourish Founder, Claire Turner, was stunned to discover the lack of avenues available to help children and families experiencing financial stress.
After considering possible ways to help, an idea finally came to mind at 1am one morning - putting together her own tailored hampers to support families during the Christmas season.
“I had always had really lovely memories of my own childhood Christmas celebrations, and it just broke my heart thinking about all the families who struggled so much during this time. My husband and I decided to fundraise for just a few hampers initially and decided we would cover the difference if we didn’t hit our fundraising targets to ensure we could support at least a few families during this challenging time.”
Nourish was born, and the first hampers, which included household basics and all the fixings for a traditional Christmas meal, went out to 21 families in the Hutt Valley.
Since then, Nourish has grown exponentially due to the help of a dedicated network of volunteers, who pack hampers every Christmas season. Pak and Save Petone have supported Nourish since their early days, and Claire and Co-Founder, Gabe Ralph dedicate many, many hours of hard work to the initiative.
Unlike traditional food parcel initiatives, Nourish now exclusively request monetary donations over food contributions. Claire says, “this ensures that families only receive staple food items that we know will be useful in a variety of recipes and can be used flexibly. We also consider the practicality of the items we’re providing – although a frozen chicken seems like a household basic, we found out early on that many households don’t have freezers – so, instead we go for dried or canned items that can be stored anywhere for an extended period of time.” They also provide a box of fresh fruit, vegetables and a dozen eggs to ensure their hampers are a balanced mix of practical and nourishing items.
Nourish also maintain a close relationship with their partner schools, who facilitate hamper distribution and provide regular feedback on the most well-received food items and any gaps in Nourish’s offering.
Claire and Gabe, who also run their own business together, admit that they find it hard to reflect on the many successes of the initiative. However her proudest moment has been realising the amount of families Nourish is set to support in 2020 – over 900. This is almost the same number of families in total that they’ve provided hampers to over the last six years. This year, in line with the additional challenges that the COVID-19 lockdown has presented, Nourish has received a huge amount of interest from both families in need and volunteers. Claire says “the lockdown has meant that many parents have been unable to work, or has lost their job – so we’re experiencing a huge increase in demand.”
Accepting donations via Nourish’s Givealittle page, Nourish have a fundraising goal of $130,000 for the 2020 season with all donations, however big or small, going far. As Claire identifies, “one of the coolest things about Nourish is that we have no overheads. Gabe and I don’t take a salary and all operations are run from home. It is a great comfort to our donors knowing that all contributions go directly to supplying hampers to families in need.”
To find out more about Nourish, please click here.
