Tauranga's phenomenally-successful Good Neighbour initiative has received a substantial multi-year funding grant from BayTrust, just as construction of its new commercial kitchen is about to get underway.

The operational funding grant will be split over three years ($35,000 per year) and will help keep Good Neighbour running while expansion of its community programmes continues.

Since launching in 2014, Good Neighbour has amassed an army of 400+ local volunteers who now rescue food that would otherwise have gone to waste, carry out backyard projects and deliver firewood to those in need, and carefully cultivate community gardens to help people grow their own fruit and vegetables.

'It's community-led development,” explains Good Neighbour's Food Impact Director, John Paine. 'We do a lot of listening to what the community wants before doing anything. It's about the community developing itself, not us developing the community.

'We give opportunities to people with busy lifestyles who want to give back. It's about people doing a little bit – that might be volunteering for an hour or two a week, or getting stuck into a half day project here and there. I think it's successful because it's do-able.”

Good Neighbour Aotearoa Trust operates four main programmes – Neighbourhood Projects, Food Rescue, Community Kitchen and Community Gardens – and is about to launch their own commercial kitchen in early 2019.

Donated food and produce will be transformed into soups, stocks and meals before being sold to help raise funds for the organisation, while a culinary arts and soft skills training programme will run alongside.

'We want to use social enterprise as a vehicle to address issues of food waste, hunger and issues of employment,” says John.

'We want to mentor people into productive work and this kitchen has been a long-held dream of ours.”

Good Neighbour has just relocated to the old Sunny's Variety Store on Tauranga's Hamilton St to allow demolition of its Burrows St premise to begin and construction of the new commercial kitchen to get underway.

John says BayTrust's new multi-year grant will be used to help pay for administration, staff and daily running costs such as power, rates and insurance.

'We are incredibly grateful. BayTrust provides cornerstone funding for us and we value our partnership with them.

"They're committed to supporting us with operating funds which is wonderful as they're the hardest to get funding for. These funds will enable us to run and keep this operation going.”

BayTrust CEO Alastair Rhodes says Good Neighbour helps to promote many of BayTrust's key outcomes and funding priorities including inclusive communities, prosperous communities and improved natural environment to help ensure ‘the Bay of Plenty is the greatest place to be.'

'You can't help but be impressed by what Good Neighbour has achieved in such a short space of time,” he says.

'Their Food Rescue service is now diverting over 8 tonnes of food from landfill every week and redistributing it to 55 charities and social support agencies.

'They've also established 174 garden plots across the city (many of them in schools) and have delivered 104 tonnes of firewood to families in need. In addition to that, hundreds of community volunteer events have been organised so people can pitch in and do their bit to help others,” Rhodes says.

'We really appreciate Good Neighbour's desire to facilitate the community to help itself and completely agree with their collaborative approach. So we're delighted to help support them by helping to cover their operational costs so they can continue the wonderful work they are doing.”