Our Story

Back in 2017, the idea for a food-rescue charity started during an afternoon reverie in a café. With the cabinets still full of food, founder Christina McBeth asked ‘What happens to the leftovers when the café closes? Surely they don’t get thrown out.’ As it turned out, much of it was!

Christina and a friend, Louise Saurin, decided to pitch their food rescue idea to several local cafés. After a positive response, and much lobbying of local council, advertising on social media and organising keen volunteers, Nourished for Nil was born.

Nourished for Nil soon developed a simple system of rescuing surplus food from donors and distributing it to the community at no charge, in the space of mere hours. In the first week, the team served 323 people, rescued 690 food items and distributed around 40kg of fruit.

In following years, the charity took on the running of the Napier and Hastings food banks, and opened two social supermarkets.

Fast forward to 2025: Nourished for Nil rescued 1,219 tonnes of surplus food, and had 106,703 visits for a bag or two of rescued food. The two food banks provided emergency food parcels for 3506 families, and 2,474 people shopped at the social supermarket.

‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’ 

- Margaret Mead

Key milestones in our journey so far