A bit about us

Meat the Need is a three-year-old charity that is farmer founded and farmer led. We connect the dots between farmers who want to donate some of what they produce and families in need.

Produce, in the form of premium mince and milk, is donated by farmers and put into the hands of those already on the frontlines of food insecurity in NZ: food banks and community organisations. Food banks already know the needs of their local community, and it's through them that mince and milk is given to families that need it.

Ultimately, our aim is for no one to go hungry in NZ. We also believe everyone should have access to the nutritious protein that is grown right here in NZ. Alongside farmers, we’re on a mission to achieve just that.

100% of farmer donations go directly into feeding families, whether that be livestock, milk or online donations (e.g. a ‘virtual animal’ or a ‘box of meat’).

If you’re a farmer, you can donate by signing up on our website. Rural businesses can also back Meat the Need by joining our ‘Rural Business Supporters Scheme’.

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 & GENERAL MANAGER
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.

JULIA JONES

BOARD CHAIR
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.

Greg McSkimming

BOARD MEMBER
As Silver Fern Farm's Agribusiness and Strategic Solutions Manager, Greg has a huge passion for the success of agriculture. He’s also fully aware of the challenges and opportunities in front of us as an industry. Anything he can do to improve SFF's awesome products, and create value sustainably for our farmers and industry, is what drives him. At SFF, Greg, their executive and board saw the vision Wayne and Siobhan had in setting up Meat the Need. They didn’t hesitate in bringing the help needed to create a supply chain of red meat from farms to families in need. It doesn’t sit right with Greg that although our farmers produce a lot, there are families in NZ that can’t put nutritious red meat on the table. He feels privileged to be a part of the team and to be able to bring value wherever he can to this cause.

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.

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.

Nicki Mackay

BOARD MEMBER
Whilst Nicki was born and raised in Dunedin, she has spent more than 28 years working and living in and around rural communities. She’s always been in the financial services sector, most recently as the Head of Claims & Digital Assessing for FMG. Her collaborative leadership style, operational expertise, and ability to influence others have seen her become a central figure in leading large operational teams, business change and building people capability across the FMG’s national footprint. Nicki loves to bring a fresh perspective and challenge the status quo to ensure our rural sector continues to lead innovation tomorrow as well as it does today. As an Agri-women’s Development Trust Escalator Graduate in 2016, she thrives on getting involved and supporting organisations across the Agri-sector.

Shaheen Junge

BOARD MEMBER
Shaheen was born in Auckland and has spent the last 7 years working at Fonterra in various people focused roles. Her passion to support communities has led her to a new role leading Community & Social Investment for the Co-op. Shaheen has a conjoint degree and has worked in various roles & industries across Australia & NZ. Her leadership style is collaborative with a bent to making things happen!

Sarah Gagliardi

OPERATIONS MANAGER
Sarah was born and bred in Christchurch and now lives in sunny Nelson. Although she doesn't come from a farming household, growing up she earned the majority of her pocket money working in shearing sheds on cousins' farms. Sarah has a master’s degree in the health sciences and has spent the last decade in education and healthcare roles. One of her career highlights has been working in schools across Africa, India and Nepal, facilitating teachers' professional development and curriculum design. Outside of work, Sarah is a Refugee Support Volunteer for the Red Cross and loves all things sport, especially kayaking and swimming.

Sandra Alfeld

PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER
Sandra grew up on a sheep & beef farm in Northland. She now resides in North Canterbury with her husband and two children, where she is Managing Director of Glenhope Station. Their farming operation includes beef cattle, deer, manuka honey, eco-tourism and a carbon farm. Prior to her time at Glenhope Station, Sandra studied at AUT completing a bachelor’s degree in sport and recreation and a postgraduate certificate in business, majoring in marketing. Sandra went on to develop her career in Perth, specialising in sponsorship, commercial sales and corporate relations management for several large corporate entities. Sandra has always been a health and wellness advocate and through her partnerships work with MTN, she looks forward to helping more Kiwi families put high quality protein on their tables.

AWARDS

Sustainable Business Awards Finalist

Sustainable Business Awards Finalist

Meat the Need is a 2020 Sustainable Business Awards Finalist! The Awards are designed to showcase and highlight the fantastic contribution we are making towards sustainability in New Zealand.
High fives all round!

NZ Food Heroes 2020 Finalist

NZ Food Heroes 2020 Finalist

Meat The Need is a finalist in the NZ Food Hero as part of the 2020 New Zealand Food Awards. To all our farmers donating to the programme, thank you for all your hard work helping Kiwis during lockdown!

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.