The Faces & Brains Behind, Wonky Box, New Zealand

Like many good stories, it starts with a campervan and a dwindling bank account! Owners and co-founders Angus and Katie were recent Covid returnees from the UK, doing seasonal harvesting work in Nelson. They were shocked to discover how many thousands of tonnes of produce were discarded because of stringent retail standards and impractical logistics.

Determined to get more produce onto plates, they turned their campervan into a makeshift veggie delivery service, picking up “wonky” or excess produce from growers and delivering them around the Wellington region.

Fast forward three years and Wonky Box has three rescue centres (or fulfillment warehouses) around the country - in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch- and delivers to all nonrural addresses across the motu.

Wonky Box operates on the principle of reducing food waste. How significant is the impact of your operations on local food wastage statistics, and can you share any success stories?

We’re super proud to share that thanks to the support of our caring community of customers, we’ve rescued over 2 million kilograms of produce from becoming waste so far. One of our favourite Waikato growers is, of course, Karn and his partner Briar. Through our partnership, we rescued over 4,500kg of “mini” watermelons over the summer season and over 4,000kg of “too small” pumpkins. That’s four baby humpback whales worth of pumpkins!

Our success is not only about giving growers an additional source of income for their hard-grown crops. When produce makes it to plates and not to landfills, it prevents it from breaking down into harmful greenhouse gases. UNEP has said that if food waste were its own country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, beaten only by China and the United States, so anything we can do to cut back on waste is important!

In what ways does Wonky Box offer convenience to its customers, and how does this service differ from traditional grocery shopping?

Our boxes arrive straight at customers’ doorsteps every Thursday or Friday, saving them a trip to the supermarket. Who doesn’t love that? Especially as the stormy Winter weather sets in.

Our customers tell us that having this regular delivery routine gets them into a better cooking routine in their household - they’ve started planning their meals and working around their Wonky delivery, which cuts back on impulse shopping trips and becomes a bit of a money saver.

At the supermarket, we’re spoiled for choice, which is great, but it can also make us a bit unfairly picky about the produce we choose! What you get in your Wonky Box varies weekly, based on what needs rescuing from growers at that time. So it’s also a fun way to get exposed to fruit or veggies you might not usually think to buy and an excellent opportunity to experiment as a family around the dinner table. We have a whole ‘crop’ of recipes on our website to help inspire if people get a bit stuck on how to enjoy a particular item!

Could you walk us through the journey of a piece of fruit or vegetable from being rescued to reaching a customer’s doorstep? What quality checks does it go through, and generally how long is this process?

We pride ourselves on getting the fresh goodness we receive back out the door to customers within 48 hours. Deliveries start rolling in from growers at the start of the week, and our team performs quality checks as the crates arrive to make sure that underneath any superficial quirks and curves, the produce is still fresh, delicious, and ‘pear’fectly edible.

Then we start packing Boxes on Wednesday, with customers starting to receive their Boxes the very next day.

How does Wonky Box’s innovative approach to ‘rescuing’ fruits and vegetables provide a costeffective and convenient solution for consumers looking to incorporate healthy, fresh produce into their daily lives?

At Wonky Box, we call it ‘grower-led’ eating - this is a way of enjoying what is abundant and seasonal in New Zealand at any given time…just as nature intended! Produce that’s in season is at its nutritional peak, likely to be of high quality AND more affordable too as there’s more of it around.

How can Consumers support Wonky Box, where can they purchase a box from?

We are an online based service, so to anyone who’s keen to give Wonky a whirl, just jump on to www. wonkybox.nz and order your Box. We are a subscription service, but with flexibility! Customers can choose between weekly, fortnightly, 3 weekly or monthly deliveries and skip or cancel at any time, no strings!

Anything else you’d like to add?

If you have a rural address and can’t order a Wonky Box yet, we’re sorry! We’re working to expand our delivery service to get to you as soon as possible. If you’re a super keen bean, some rural dwellers order their Box to their work address or to family members’ homes so they can still get their dose of wonky wonders.

@wonkybox.nz