Winners of Good Food Boost mentoring programme announced

Four emerging ‘good’ food and beverage companies, with products hailing from different countries, have won a competition to receive mentoring from some of New Zealand’s top food business experts.

The Good Food Boost mentoring programme, run by the Sustainable Business Network (SBN), Waterfront Auckland, and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), supports emerging food businesses that have the potential to shape the future of good food in New Zealand.

Rachel Brown, CEO of SBN, says that ‘good’ food considers where food comes from, how it’s grown and made, and where it goes to once the consumer has finished with it, in addition to the bottom line of making a profit.

“These emerging businesses are flagships for the future of New Zealand business, since they are integrating environmental and social considerations into their business model from the start,” she says.

“We believe it’s vital to ensure we foster the growth of ‘good’ food businesses, to meet the demands of consumers for products that are healthy and improve the wellbeing of people and the environment. The Good Food Boost programme is an incubator designed to help grow four such pioneering food businesses.”

The winners are:

• Ahi Kā wellness tonic – a series of tonics that are a modern take on a traditional Maori tea recipe, served chilled or hot, made with herbs grown on Great Barrier Island (applicant: Tama Toki, Auckland)

• The Hungarian Artisan Co. – smoked and dry cured free range pork salamis from Hungarian recipes, free of preservatives and nitrates (applicants: Samantha Darragh and Attila Kovàcs, Tauranga)

• The Green Kitchen – Organic chicken and beef bone broth, with a nose to tail zero waste approach to holistic health care (applicants: Neena Truscott and Belinda MacDonald, Cambridge)

• Line's Knækbrod – a Danish classic cracker bread, rich in nuts and seeds (applicant: Line Hart, Auckland)

Each winner will receive weekly mentoring on business development, product presentation, taste, advertising and branding; use of The Cloud’s commercial kitchen at Queens Wharf, courtesy of Waterfront Auckland; workshops and guidance on food and beverage business development from ATEED; free attendance at the SBN’s Good Food Forum on 25th May where their products will be shown to industry experts; and profiling of the products through SBN, ATEED and Waterfront Auckland’s communication channels.

Mentors include top Auckland chef Michael van de Elzen, owner of Boy and Bird; advertising and branding expert Martin Yeoman, Managing Director of Assignment Group; and Chris Morrison, co-founder of Phoenix Organics and All Good Organics.

Find out more about the Good Food Boost mentoring programme at: http://sustainable.org.nz/good-food-boost/.