Join us in Tāhuna Queenstown for The Kai Commitment Summit 2026 – bringing together leaders from across Aotearoa New Zealand's food system to explore how smarter food utilisation can unlock profitability, fuel innovation, and drive sustainable business performance. Through data-driven insights, industry case studies, and collaborative discussions, attendees will uncover opportunities to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, unlock value from resources, and build more resilient businesses. Held in collaboration with our Partners the NZ Food & Grocery Council and concurrently with their Annual Conference, the Kai Commitment Summit offers a unique opportunity to connect food waste action with broader Shared Horizons of the food and grocery sector.
Kai Commitment is a not-for-profit public-private partnership working with businesses, Government, and other aligned partners across Aotearoa New Zealand to reduce food waste and build a more efficient, productive and economically sustainable food system that nourishes people, supports communities, and protects our environment. Visit our website to learn more.
REGISTRATION
Registrations are now open
Full Individual Registration $199 + GST
PROGRAMME
Subject to Change
TIME | TOPIC |
|---|---|
1:00PM | WELCOME Victoria Hatton |
1:15PM | Leaders Panel: Valuing Food in a Changing World How Kai Commitment's signatories are working to value food in an ever-changing climate. Nicola Voice - Woolworths NZ Victoria McCrea - George Western Foods NZ Shane Hammond - Mars Julian Benefield - Foodstuffs NZ |
2:00PM | AFTERNOON TEA |
2:30PM | Session 1: Measure What Matters – Turning Food Waste Data into Opportunity From measuring and benchmarking to understanding environmental impact, data helps businesses see the true scale and value of food waste, providing a lens to understand where the greatest opportunities lie. Margaret Jewell - WRAP Rachel Stoner - Eunomia Lauren Wilcox - AS Wilcox |
3:15PM | Session 2: Unlocking the value in Food What opportunities emerge when we see surplus as a resource rather than waste? This session explores operational efficiency, continuous improvement and innovation – looking at how businesses can keep food in its intended use, unlock higher-value applications for surplus and by-products, and retain value across the food system.
Tom Freeman - Argon & Co Nicky Solomon - Bioresource Processing Alliance Matt Harcombe - Silver Fern Farms |
4:00PM | Session 3: From Awareness to Action: Changing Food Waste Behaviours From consumers to employees, lasting change happens when people understand the value of food and are empowered to make a difference. This session explores how behaviour change, engagement and recognition can turn food waste reduction into everyday action.
Natalie Reeves - Queenstown Airport Susan Catania - Nestle Sophie Wolland - Love Food Hate Waste |
4:45PM | Raewyn Bleakley, Chief Executive, New Zealand Food & Grocery Council
Sharing the NZ Food Grocery Council's perspective on the value of industry collaboration, partnering and supporting members to drive sustainability and reduce food waste across the sector |
5:00PM | CLOSING & REFLECTIONS
Carmen Doran, Executive Director, will share Kai Commitment’s future plans, upcoming events and webinars, and opportunities to get involved in advancing our strategic pillars and achieving our collective goals. The Assistant Chair Miranda Mirosa will then formally close the Summit. |
5:15PM | KAI COMMITMENT SUMMIT NETWORKING DRINKS AND NIBBLES |
6:00PM | NZFGC CONFERENCE WELCOME FUNCTION (optional extra) |
10:00 AM
10:15 AM
Carl Davidson - Social Scientist
Carl Davidson is one of New Zealand’s best-known social scientists. In 2023 he was made a Fellow of the Research Association of New Zealand and a Global Insight250 winner, an international award celebrating worldwide pioneers, leaders and innovators in market research, data-driven marketing, and insights. Carl’s career stretches over 30 years and includes stints as an academic, practitioner, and author. He is also a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the University of Canterbury’s Business School.
10:30 AM
This panel session will explore the current experiences and future needs of students across a range of perspectives, including adult learners, international students, and families. Through lived experience and open discussion, panelists will share insights into the challenges, expectations, and opportunities shaping the future of education and student support.
11:10 AM
This session will examine the growing demand for student accommodation, exploring the current landscape, key market pressures, and the factors driving future development. Greg and Hamish will share insights into student housing trends, evolving learner needs, and the opportunities and challenges facing the sector as demand continues to increase.
11:45 AM
Geoff Denison - President, Student Accommodation Association of Australia
Geoff is the sitting President of the Student Accommodation Association (SAA) of Australia and Director of Accommodation at Adelaide University.
Established in 2018, the Student Accommodation Association (SAA) in consultation with the sector has developed the National Property Accreditation Scheme (NPAS), a robust set of minimum industry standards that distinguishes quality student accommodation from other accommodation in Australia to help students make an informed accommodation choice.
As one of the founding SAA National Committee members, Geoff has been on the NPAS journey from concept design, through program implementation and has watched the NPAS accredited property portfolio grow to over 23,000 student accommodation beds nationally.
12:30 PM
1:15 PM
What does a high-functioning student accommodation system look like in Christchurch?
• Student experience: affordability, wellbeing, safety, community
• Supply: enough beds, right locations, diverse options
• Quality: design, standards, management
• System performance: speed, coordination, sustainability
What’s stopping this today?
• Regulation & planning
• Funding & feasibility
• Delivery constraints (land, build, timelines)
• Misaligned incentives
• Poor coordination / information gaps
Which gaps matter most?
2:15 PM
Each group shares:
• 1 “good” insight
• 1 priority gap
2:30 PM
How do we close the gaps?
What can each group do differently?
• Education providers:
• Private sector:
• Government/regulators:
• Funders/investors:
• Students:
What requires joint effort?
Focus on:
• Partnerships / new delivery models
• Policy or regulatory shifts
• Funding approaches
• Data sharing / coordination
What happens first, and who leads?
3:30 PM
• Where is there strongest alignment?
• Where are the tensions?
• What is realistically doable in 12–24 months?
3:45 PM
SUPPORTERS
If you are interested in supporting the summit, please contact hello@kaicommitment.org.nz
Summit Supporter
Summit Supporter
Sector Supporter
SPEAKERS
Susan Catania
Country Manager & CEO
Susan has worked with Nestlé for over 22 years. In May 2025, she moved from her role as Business Executive Officer (General Manager) of the Foods Business for Nestlé Oceania into her current position. As a member of the Nestlé Oceania Executive Team and the Nestlé NZ Board, Susan has full P&L responsibility for the New Zealand business, leading strategy and execution with a cross-functional team across Australia and New Zealand. Susan is recognised for her authentic leadership style, strong commercial acumen, and ability to deliver results alongside her talented teams.
Shane Hammond
Country Director
Shane has spent more than 20 years in the New Zealand FMCG industry. He began his career with family-owned Mainland Products in Dunedin before moving to Auckland, where he held roles at Fonterra, Goodman Fielder, Cadbury, DB Breweries, and EasiYo. During his time at Mars since 2017, Shane has focused on building a strong culture of Associate engagement and development, setting the strategy and structure to unlock growth, strengthening retailer partnerships through joint business planning at both category and executive levels, and leading significant organisational transformation initiatives.
Margaret Jewel
Food Programme Manager Asia-Pacific
Margaret leads WRAP’s food waste work across the Asia-Pacific region, working with food businesses, industry partners and voluntary agreements, including the Kai Commitment. Her background spans agricultural science, food supply-chain sustainability, climate change mitigation and industry leadership. Margaret also contributes to WRAP’s global work to improve consistency in how food waste data are collected, interpreted and compared, helping businesses and food pacts use benchmarking to identify priorities, track progress and learn from one another.
Victoria McCrea
GM Commercial
Victoria is a Senior executive with 20+ years' experience leading high performing commercial, marketing, innovation and procurement teams across multiple markets. Victoria has worked across FMCG, Retail & Financial Services and currently resides on the New Zealand Association of Bakers Board and Baking Institute Research Trust.
Sophie Wolland
Programme Manager of Love Food Hate Waste New Zealand
Through her role managing LFHW NZ, Sophie leads national efforts to prevent household food waste. She brings together research, behaviour change, communications and partnerships to turn evidence into practical action, helping households waste less food and supporting councils, brands and organisations across Aotearoa to deliver greater impact. Recent evaluation found that people engaged with LFHW NZ reported cutting their food waste by nearly one-fifth on average.
Rachel Stoner
Senior Environmental Consultant, Eunomia Research & Consulting
Rachel has six years' experience in waste policy, resource management and emissions accounting across both the public and private sectors. She began her career in London specialising in carbon accounting and Net Zero strategy, before relocating to Auckland in 2023. Since then, her work has spanned product stewardship policy development, supply chain waste reduction, and resource and waste flows, covering areas such as e-waste, food waste and plastics across New Zealand and the Pacific. Rachel particularly finds value in translating findings from in-depth research and stakeholder engagement into actionable outputs that can be implemented on the ground.
Nicola Voice
Sustainability Leader, Woolworths NZ
Nicola Voice is a sustainability leader with extensive experience spanning retail, consumer insights and responsible business. As Sustainability Lead - Circularity at Woolworths New Zealand, she leads initiatives across food waste reduction, food rescue, resource recovery and product stewardship, translating ambitious sustainability goals into practical action at scale.
Nicola plays a key role in Woolworths New Zealand’s efforts to reduce food waste and maximise the value of surplus food, working with operational teams, industry partners and food rescue organisations to deliver meaningful outcomes. She is passionate about tackling food waste through collaboration, innovation and practical solutions that work across the food system.
Before joining Woolworths New Zealand, Nicola spent 16 years with Nielsen across international markets, including India and the United Kingdom, developing deep expertise in consumer behaviour, analytics and commercial insights.
She brings a perspective that combines consumer understanding, commercial pragmatism and hands-on experience delivering sustainability initiatives within one of New Zealand’s largest food retailers. Nicola is particularly interested in how businesses can work collectively to accelerate progress on food waste prevention and build a more resilient, resource-efficient food system.
Nicky Solomon
General Manager, Bioresource Processing Alliance
Nicky has built her career at the intersection of food, innovation, and industry development, with experience spanning more than a decade in the dairy sector, as well as innovation roles in SMEs and the New Zealand Food Innovation Network. She led the implementation of the industry collaboration Sustainable is Attainable in Hawke’s Bay, strengthening regional connections between sustainability, innovation, and commercial opportunity. As General Manager of the Bioresource Processing Alliance Nicky drives impact through helping unlock value from New Zealand’s biological resources. Nicky also serves on the NZ Food Safety / Haumaru Kai Aotearoa Advisory Board and chairs Foodeast Haumako, an innovation hub advancing regional capability in Hawke’s Bay.
Tom Freeman
Managing Principal, Argon & Co
Tom is a manufacturing professional with over 10 years of industry experience within process improvement and product development. He has deep experience of combining practical diagnostics, data-led problem solving and hands-on implementation across food and beverage, manufacturing, utilities, waste and service operations. Recent project experience has focussed on helping organisations strengthen performance management, embed new ways of working and build capability from frontline teams through to senior leadership.
Natalie Reeves
Sustainability Manager, Queenstown Airport
As Sustainability Manager at Queenstown Airport, Natalie Reeve leads the airport's work to reduce environmental impacts and create positive outcomes for the communities it serves. Since joining the organisation in 2022, she has strengthened its reporting framework and advanced sustainability initiatives spanning emissions reduction, waste minimisation, and circular economy practices. A particular area of focus is food waste. Natalie has championed programmes that divert surplus food from landfill through composting and community redistribution, creating both environmental and social benefits. She is passionate about bringing together staff, business partners and the wider community to find practical, scalable solutions to sustainability challenges.
Julian Benefield
Chief Legal & External Affairs Officer, Foodstuffs
Julian Benefield is the Chief Legal & External Affairs Officer at Foodstuffs, the co-operatives behind the PAK'nSAVE, New World and Four Square brands. He leads the Co-op’s ESG, Legal, Compliance, Company Secretariat, Government Relations and External Relations functions, connecting responsible business practice, stakeholder engagement and advocacy on issues that matter to its businesses and communities. He advises the Boards and CEOs on strategic, regulatory, sustainability and reputation matters. Julian first joined Foodies as a teenager working at PAK’nSAVE Taupo. He then re-joined Foodies in 2015, was appointed General Counsel in 2022, and stepped into his current role in July 2026.
Prior to joining Foodstuffs, Julian worked in Aotearoa NZ and overseas at major law firms and in-house at companies such as Telstra, REA Group and Sky TV. He went to the University of Canterbury and has completed the Executive Legal Leadership Programme at Harvard Law School.
Matt Harcombe
Head of Climate, Siler Fern Farms
Matt is head of climate at Silver Fern Farms and has spent the last 30 years working across various sustainability related roles in the primary sector. He adores our little country and the incredible goodness it produces for discerning consumers across the globe.
ACCOMMODATION
Mercure Queenstown
Perched above Lake Wakatipu with spectacular views of the Remarkables, the Mercure Queenstown Resort offers a relaxing alpine retreat just minutes from central Queenstown. Guests can enjoy comfortable accommodation, on-site dining, and leisure facilities, all set against a stunning mountain backdrop.
Rendezvous Heritage Hotel Queenstown
Rendezvous Heritage Hotel Queenstown offers a blend of comfort and elegance just a short distance from central Queenstown. Featuring spacious accommodation, excellent leisure facilities, and stunning lake and mountain views, the hotel provides a relaxing retreat while remaining close to the region’s renowned adventure activities, dining experiences, and natural attractions.
Please contact NZFGC@avenues.co.nz for further information on how to book
