New Zealand grocery co-operative Foodstuffs North Island and Nourished for Nil will open their second Social Supermarket in Hawke’s Bay next Monday.

This comes 18 months after the partners’ first social supermarket in Napier, providing support to individuals and families facing food insecurity.

With New World Hastings acting as a buddy store, the new Hawke’s Bay branch, located in Hastings, will repurpose an empty office site into a fully stocked social supermarket.

“A lot of people using our Napier social supermarket come from Hastings, but others think that because the service is in Napier, it’s not for them or they can’t afford the travel costs to get there. This new store will be just 100 metres from our distribution centre,” said Nourished for Nil founder Christina McBeth.

The Hastings Social Supermarket will be named ‘Whare Whāngai’ which means a place of nurturing and nourishment.

The name was gifted to Nourished by Nil by Sir Timoti Karetu, KNZM QSO CRSNZ, a Maori language academic in New Zealand.