About Kai Ora Collective
Kai Ora Collective is a not-for-profit ‘buyers collective’ delivering affordable access to fresh fruit and vegetables across the greater Wellington region.
We’re run as a partnership between Wesley Community Action and Te Whatu Ora / Health NZ and we’re powered by community groups and volunteers.
Each week we buy fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables from local suppliers and growers. Because we buy them in bulk we get them for a good price. This means we can sell them to our members for much less than they would cost at the supermarket.
As a Kai Ora Collective member you can order weekly $15 fruit and vege packs – as many and as often as you like.
You can also put together your own selection of produce through our online ordering platform. Online orders are currently available at 8 pick-up locations
Powered by volunteers
The Collective is made possible by many volunteers giving their time generously to support their community – we’re not a business or a charity.
We have 10 co-ops running 10 packing hubs where our volunteers help to pack fruit & vege packs and deliver them to 39 pick-up locations throughout the greater Wellington region.
We uphold the mana of all our participants – the growers, the wholesalers, the freight workers, our volunteers and of course you, our members.
We’re creating a food system that rewards everyone fairly and is accessible to all of our community. So the more people that join, the better value the Collective can deliver to everyone involved.
Our Kaupapa
We believe that access to fresh healthy kai is a right, not a privilege.
We believe the food system is broken and does not cater for everyone in our community. This creates a cycle of dependence on food banks and other food charity schemes for communities that don’t have easy access to affordable fresh healthy food options and face financial, social and / or health challenges.
We want to address this injustice by empowering our communities to collectively purchase fresh fruit and vegetables direct from the growers at wholesale prices and then distribute the produce to their communities where it can have the most impact.
Who is the Collective for?
The Collective is for anyone who cares about their community, who wants to help fight the injustices of the profit-first food system and who wants to eat the freshest and best value fruit and veges in town!
It’s a great deal and it helps to provide affordable tāmaota hauora kai (fresh healthy food) to everyone in our community.
Your responsibilities as a member
As a member here’s a few things to remember:
Please make sure you pay on time.
Bring a reusable bag to your pick-up location.
Follow us on Facebook to get the latest news about your Co-op.
Offer to volunteer if you can – many hands make light work!
Invite your whānau to join - the more members we have buying packs the greater value we can deliver for all!
Our history
The collective started as the Wellington Region Fruit & Vege Coop in 2014 as a collaboration between the Public Health team at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora - Wellington, creative change organisation Wesley Community Action, and local community partners.
We changed our name to Kai Ora Collective in February 2026.
The Collective is similar to organisations in other parts of Aotearoa New Zealand such as Foodtogether – a social enterprise available in over 10 towns and cities, who support and collaborate to develop a national network of community produce co-ops.
The Co-op also aligns with Wellington’s Regional Kai Network – a collaborative group that is passionate about improving our food system for our communities and whānau. It includes people at all levels who care about, produce and eat kai.
