Citizens of 12.3

New Zealand's Citizens of 12.3 are everyday Kiwis who want Aotearoa to halve food waste by 2030. Our Citizens' Steering Committee are helping others to recognise that food has value and inspiring action to prevent food waste. They are grass-roots, community-oriented advocates for change.

Our Citizens of 12.3 (Steering Committee) have made the following commitment:

Empowering citizens to recognise that food has value and

take action to prevent food waste. By:

SHOWCASING the opportunities for food waste reduction, particularly in the household;

ADVOCATING to government and business for enabling conditions for food waste reduction;

TAKING ACTION by running events and campaigns on food waste reduction in Aotearoa.

TESSA VINCENT

Co-Ordinator

Tessa is the Founding Co-ordinator for New Zealand Food Waste Champions. She has a Law and Arts background and has developed a passion for collaborative, sustainability initiatives.

KATE WALMSLEY

Kate is a Wellington local, community-scale composter and regenerative urban agriculture advocate with a background in biotechnology. Being part of Kaicycle and the Urban Farmers' Alliance has taught her how soil health links with so many environmental and social challenges, and how food systems change is a key part of the solution.

CHRISTIANA TORRICELLI

Christiana has been a strong advocate for addressing food waste and food insecurity for over 25 years, working individually and in partnership with government, the food sector and a wide variety of charities in both the US and the UK. She has lead community action campaigns and policy development in both countries.

KATIE BRIGHT

:Katie has been a ‘Kiwi living in London’ for the last 4 years but is returning home to New Zealand in 2021 with the aim to work towards reducing surplus food. During her time aboard she volunteered with a range of food waste initiatives including Olio, FareShare and The Peoples Fridge – Brixton.

NICK LOOSLEY

Champion Rep

Nick is on our Champions and Citizens of 12.3 groups to ensure both groups are complimenting each other’s efforts to tackle food waste. He’s the founder of Everybody Eats – a pay as you feel dining concept for everyone that feeds bellies, not bins.

SOPHIE DIXON

Sophie is the Wellbeing and Sustainability Officer at Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association. In 2020 she helped create a visual campaign to reduce food waste on campus as part of International Food Waste Awareness Day.

GEORGIA MAYER

Georgia is passionate about sustainability and food waste and has a background in public health, food science and marketing. She has run community cooking classes where she educated participants about reducing food waste.

CLAUDIA HICKEY

Claudia thinks the goal to halve food waste by 2030 is ambitious but exciting, and would love nothing more than to help on that journey. Claudia has written a blog on food waste/ loss, with a particular focus on indigenous practices: https://claudiahickey.wixsite.com/bitethecrust

BOBBY LLOYD

Bobby is the Sales & Partnership lead for Reusabowl – a bowl borrowing system and response to single use waste. Bobby left corporate life after discovering the broken, wasteful design of our current linear economy and saw the opportunity for a new, circular way of thinking.

BRITTANY YANG

Brittany is a designer, general lover of food and volunteer of the Free Store. She can't stand the fact that food waste exists alongside food poverty, and thinks there has to be a better system – here in New Zealand and worldwide – to remedy this problem.

ASHLEY CHONG

Ashley is a big supporter of sustainability. She is running a food business with her partner and aims to minimise food waste. She is keen to get involved with innovation and food waste reduction and learn more about SDG 12.3.

MARSHALL BELL

Marshall is a designer with a background in food science, culinary arts, and food product development that is now focussing on design within complex systems. He wants to direct his efforts on better our food system in New Zealand and is excited about innovating with by-products and lower grade food items for commercial applications as it aligns with his hobby passions of preservation, fermentation, and preventing waste!

MORGAN FITZGERALD

Morgan is obsessed with everything about the global food system and finding ways to make it more sustainable. From seed-saving research in India to helping establish the first social grocery store in Australia, she loves the creativity, collaboration, and growth that occurs when sharing perspectives and successes from various cultures around the world.

DAVID MCKENZIE

David is a roaming Wwoofer and food writer who has a degree in Soviet history and Victorian literature and a pretty serious obsession with old water mills. He has worked closely with Slow Food International and the Slow Food Youth Network since 2016.

JOANNE DAVIDSON

Joanne would love to see better use made of food resources to eliminate food waste to landfill and ensure access to real food for everyone. She has worked with food rescue service Kaivolution to collect and redistribute excess food and set up a community compost and vege garden for a shared area in her neighbourhood.