Meat the Need founder Wayne Langford. Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
A rural charity raised enough food for 1.2 million meals during a 13-and-a-half hour telethon on Thursday.
Meat the Need normally collects donated animals from farmers which are then turned into mince for foodbanks.
This week it ran a telethon, The Big Feed, in a bid to get more donations, aiming to raise enough money for 1 million meals.
Founder Wayne Langford says he was blown away by the support they received, with an initial total of 1.2 million meals.
"It was pretty amazing," he told RNZ.
"We had a pretty audacious goal, one million meals. I think we thought we were going to get there but we didn't know if we were going to get there midway through the morning, and then to steam home like we did was fantastic and it's been a great result."
Langford expected the total would be even higher once everything was counted up.
He said the meals would be distributed to foodbanks they work with nationwide over the year, and allow the charity to increase its donations.
"This will mean that we can increase our reach and we can provide the foodbanks that we're already supplying with a bit more as well, so they'll be incredibly grateful and it's a great story for the New Zealand agriculture sector."
Langford said the foodbanks were incredibly grateful, stoked to be able to add meat to their meals.
"Some mince was actually being delivered while the telethon was going on and they were watching it on the screen as well, and they just absolutely love it.
"Mince is just something that they've never had, and the fact that they can be part of the program and see it being so well supported, that's just a credit to what's going on."
Langford said additional charities and food suppliers contacted Meat the Need asking for support, and the extra donations would help them to meet that demand.
