A bit about us

Meat the Need is a brand new nationally based charity originally designed to supply much needed meat to City Missions and food banks. This Meat is donated by farmers, processed, packed and delivered to those most in need.

Whilst there has been a need for a charity like this, to date there has been nothing to connect the dots between a willing farmer with the livestock and the community organisations with the demand in a regular, reliable supply.

 

Siobhan O'Malley

FOUNDER
Siobhan O’Malley and her husband Christopher have been sharemilkers all over the South Island, and hop growers and beef farmers in the Motueka Valley. In 2017, while living in Mid-Canterbury, they were crowned NZ Share Farmers of the Year at the NZ Dairy Industry Awards. Siobhan has several private business interests outside of the Ag sector and runs social media platform - Pukeko Pastures. She is currently sharemilking near Hokitika.

Wayne Langford

FOUNDER
Wayne Langford and his wife Tyler are dairy farmers from Golden Bay, milking 250 cows once-a-day. Wayne sits as the National Dairy Chair for Federated Farmers, Golden Bay Feds President, Primary ITO Stakeholders Council, Rural Service Centre Vice Chairman, and Te Whare Mahana Board Member. He is also known as the YOLOFarmer, a social media platform with a following of over 125,000 people.

CHEYENNE WILSON

BOARD MEMBER
Cheyenne was raised on sheep and beef properties in the heart of Southland and has been working in the dairy industry for the past 7 years. She is currently studying towards a Bachelor of Commerce in Agriculture majoring in Accounting at Lincoln University. She intends to work with rangatahi and enlighten them to the many opportunities in the primary sector and ensure they are supported and successful. As an Agri-Women’s Development Trust Next Level Graduate she thrives supporting industry organisations and initiatives.

JULIA JONES

BOARD MEMBER
Julia Jones is passionate about inspiring confidence and new thinking; she believes adaptation will ensure long term human, planet and economic wellness for our rural and urban communities. Her 6 years with KPMG fuelled her understanding of global trends and the opportunity they brought to NZ and this led to her new role as the Head of Analytics with NZX. She has experienced a series of highlights over her career, which include completing the Harvard Agri Seminar in China 2010, Te Hono boot camp at Stanford University 2017 and graduating the AWDT Escalator Program 2012.

RICHARD LUXTON

BOARD MEMBER
Richard Luxton is an experienced director, having roles on the board of Tatua Co-Operative Dairy Company, JD & RD Wallace Ltd, Kotare Farms, Waikato Rural Business Network and the St Peter’s School Foundation. He brings previous experience as a farm supervisor for MyFarm in Canterbury and other farm enterprises, and as a supply chain specialist.

JESSIE CHAN

BOARD MEMBER
Jessie Chan lives in Mid Canterbury with her two sons Adam (6) and Noah (1) where she is managing director of Riverstone Farming, a dairy business milking 850 cows. Jessie has an Honours degree in Animal Science and has worked in a range of rural professional roles over a fifteen year period. She is currently the Chair Elect of RuralCo Ltd, on the Board of Ngai Tahu Farming Ltd, Alpine Energy Ltd and the Bio-protection Research Centre. Jessie is a member of the Institute of Directors and New Zealand Asian Leaders.

A Peek into our process

01

Talk to farmers

Farmers are generous and caring community members, and they let us know they want to donate cash or livestock to feeding NZ families.

02

Collect the Animal

  1. Together, Meat the Need and Silver Fern Farms arrange the collection and processing of the donated livestock from the farmer.
03

Link the need

Meat the Need staff speak with community organisations who feed vulnerable New Zealanders and we arrange the safe and regular delivery of our donated meat to them.

04

Deliver the goods

Through our distribution network, we deliver frozen meat to key locations around NZ that can send out smaller quantities when our community organisations need it. We monitor to make sure our deliveries are timely and respond to changing demand from our food banks and organisations.

05

Share the results

Communicate with our partners, sponsors and donors the impact that our charity is making as regularly as we are able, via our website and email newsletter, as well as our social media platforms. We want to ensure that each kilogram of meat donated reaches the families in need.