KiwiHarvest and Olympus launch new ‘Read and Feed’ creative annual report via J. Walter Thompson to generate food for Kiwis in need

New Zealand food rescuers, KiwiHarvest are on a mission to redistribute some of the estimated 103,000 tonnes of edible food that’s dumped to landfill every year. Since starting the business in 2012, they have successfully redistributed rescued food to create over 5.5 million meals dispersed through 220 charities nationwide. This impressive number is set to soar with its latest collaboration with the world-leading manufacturer of optical-digital products, Olympus.

In a creative use of its annual report, KiwiHarvest via J. Walter Thompson, has incentivised the reading of key information by rewarding with donations to those in need. The more sections read the more meals are generously donated by Olympus.

For each section a user reads on their Read and Feed website, Olympus donates one meal. After the donation goal is completed, readers can then choose to also donate, then share through their social media.

KiwiHarvest chair and former All Black captain, David Kirk is thrilled at the creative talent from advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, who took on the challenge of motivating the public to read key information with unsurpassed innovation.

Says Kirk: “I’ve seen a lot of Annual Reports and I promise you, this is the best one ever. Brilliantly visual and engaging and feeding hungry people at the same time! Thanks to Olympus and J Walter Thompson and to all of you who take up the opportunity to Read and Feed.”

In creating this New Zealand first, J. Walter Thompson executive creative director Justin Barnes recognised the reading of this report was critical to raise awareness and communicate the KiwiHarvest purpose and vision.

Says Barnes: “Kiwi Harvest performs a hugely important role in New Zealand and needs to raise awareness and funding wherever possible. This highly innovative Read & Feed annual report cleverly solves both problems in one fell swoop, by providing recipients of the annual report with the magical ability to turn their simple act of reading into a charitable act of feeding.”

Deborah Manning CEO of KiwiHarvest is anticipating a strong growth in awareness through this initiative with Olympus.

Says Manning: “Our success really lies in awareness. The more people know about the waste of good food in New Zealand, the more likely we will get support from industry leaders to get some real change happening.

“It’s estimated that the avoidable food waste would be enough to feed between 50,000 – 80,000 people for a whole year. That’s just staggering, especially when you consider more than 270,000 children in this country live in poverty.”

Erin Currie, Olympus business manager, says this partnership is in keeping with the company purpose of making peoples’ lives healthier, safer and more fulfilling through its innovative solutions.

Says Currie: “Innovation lies at the heart of what we do at Olympus. It feels only natural to be supporting such a forward-thinking and worthy not-for-profit. We love what KiwiHarvest does and feel very proud to be supporting such an innovative campaign to raise awareness and to ultimately help those in need.”

KiwiHarvest is anticipating this initiative to contribute to over 20,000 meals for Kiwis.