The latest initiative in utilising fish heads and fish frames for use within the community, creating employment, minimising waste, fostering community engagement and educating the public on why we need to decrease waste and how we can all do our part to contribute is The Kai Ika Project. www.kaiika.co.nz
We were fortunate here at IFP Group to have been recently approached by The Kai Ika Project for assistance with the supply of commercial grade fish bins. Always keen to support great community initiatives we certainly did want to be involved.
The Kai Ika Project utilise a customised trailer that is parked at Westhaven Marina from Thursday to Sunday, 11am to 6.30pm offering filleting services. They have joined forces with Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae pkm.org.nz who help families in the community that are in need with food parcels. The Marae distributes the previously unwanted fish heads and fish frames to the families in South Auckland. So far this has been an outstanding success with 90,000kg of fish parts repurposed. This couldn’t happen without the collaboration of a team of dedicated volunteers.
The heavy duty fish bins are utilised for cool storage and then transportation of the frames and heads. A staggering average of only 33% of a fish is consumed (as fillets) so there are a lot of frames to transport. Generally the fish heads, frames and offal are not utilised. In this instance offal is now being used as fertiliser and is spread on the organic gardens at Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae. They have amazing vegetable gardens and grow organic produce for use in the community.
If you want to be involved or keep up to date with all of the latest activities you can check out their Facebook page “The Kai Ika Project”. They are attracting international attention with a recent article by the New York Times on the success of repurposing perceived food scraps and minimising wastage.
Keep up the great work Kai Ika Project.
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