Meat the Need‘s initial goal of raising one million meals has been hit out of the park, with the final total for Thursday’s The Big Feed telethon sitting at an extraordinary 1.2 million meals.
To put it into perspective, so far, it’s taken the charity group almost two and half years to raise one million meals.
Meat the Need general manager and co-founder Wayne Langford says they initially thought they would be sitting around the 100,000 mark, and the one million goal only existed because “we had to have a bigger goal out there”.
“It’s going to take a very long time for this all to sink in. There is a lot of inequity going on out there, so it’s great to have this positivity,” he said.
The event, which was hosted by Lincoln University and emceed by media personality Matt Chisolm, ran for 12-plus hours, and caught the attention of All Blacks captain Sam Cane, the Mad Butcher and even Matt Watson the Fishing Guy joined in to promote the initiative.
Donations of all shapes and sizes came rolling in all day, from people donating $3 via text to farmers pledging livestock and milk, and Langford says he and the team are grateful for everything people have given.
“I think when people give, and people donate, it really is coming from the heart in my opinion, that’s why they’re doing it.”
