E
very year Kiwis send 157,389 tonnes of edible food to landfill. New Zealand supermarkets waste 60,500 tonnes of food a year, with meat and fish accounting for around one-fifth of that wastage. Janene and Leysa are passionate about doing something about this issue – and are seizing the chance to help some worthy charities in the process. “Food wastage is a huge problem,” says Janene. “We’ve got enough food wastage in New Zealand to feed the city of Dunedin for two years. I’ve been frustrated with how we have handled the meat wastage we have at Farro, and in the food industry as a whole.” Across Farro’s six stores, there’s approximately 20kg of wasted meat per week, which was equating to about six tonnes of meat thrown out a year.
FOOD FOR
Dio Old Girl Janene Draper (Eder, 1982) founded and co-owns the hugely successful Auckland chain Farro Fresh with her husband, James. Now Janene has joined forces with her sister, Leysa Ross, to tackle the growing problem of food wastage. Their initiative, Waste-Not Kitchen, takes meat that would otherwise be thrown out at expiry date and makes it into a range of hearty soups that are both sold and given to community groups. 78
DIO TODAY
“It just sickened me,” says Janene. “We know that more energy is required to produce meat than any other food source, so my philosophy is, if we have gone to the effort to make it, let’s not waste it!” Janene and Leysa carefully worked on the recipes for their Waste-Not Kitchen soups to ensure they were hearty and nutritious with around 20 percent protein. Turners & Growers have donated surplus and ‘ugly’ veggies to complement the surplus Farro meat, and Davis Food has also helped with gifting all the dry ingredients. “At the end of the last day of retail, we freeze down any surplus meat just like you’d do at home with meat that’s about to expire – you put it in the freezer for another day. We do this in a commercial environment, so we ensure the meat remains fresh.” Over winter the soups have been sold at Farro. For every soup bought at retail, the registered charity will donate one to families in need at the Auckland Women’s Refuge or children participating in the I Have A Dream Charitable Trust. Waste-
