I raised the problems that I have with Wishbone being leased the cafe in Te Hapua (the new Halswell Centre) and am chuffed to see that there has been some discussion of this in the local media (see Western News onP2 of Monday 15th February ). This blog post is a bit of a response to that.
First, in essence I am not singling Wishbone out and blaming them for what the CCC has done in awarding them the contract. My main concern is that the
Christchurch City Council who, on one hand, spend money to support local economic development, waste
minimisation and action to prevent carbon pollution and with the other hand,
have awarded a lease that undermines all of these things. It simply does not make sense!
Despite this I am concerned to avoid using Wishbone for
the same reasons I think the CCC should not have leased the café to them. If a local business had the same set of practices, I would not buy from them either!
Not Supporting the Local Economy
Wishbone say they hire 2 full time local people – what they
do not say is that this would be considerably more if the café were owned
locally and the food were bought and prepared in Christchurch. Instead of paying people in Christchurch,
when we buy from Wishbone, we are paying bakers, chefs, vegetable growers, transport people,
accountants and marketers etc. from
Wellington (when we could be paying people in Christchurch for all of these
things).
If the business were locally owned and operated, there would
be more jobs, and more of the money we spend would be respent in Christchurch
instead of in Wellington or further afield.
Naturally this would be better for Christchurch people.
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How money circulates in the local economy when you spend in a local business |
Carbon Footprint
Because Wishbone makes everything in Wellington, the food is flown
down to Christchurch, so the carbon footprint of that food is considerably higher than it would be if it were made in Christchurch. Climate change is happening. We need to be questioning the idea of flying food around the country (as they also do now in our hospital system, which I also regard as appalling in this day and age).
Waste Implications
They say that their packaging is recyclable, however is it actually being recycled? if so how? Given that
plastics need to be clean of food contamination and that CCC recycling
processes cannot easily sort a lot of the wrapping on Wishbone products, it
seems unlikely that any recycling is actually happening. I notice also that in the article, they don't say it is recycled - only that is is recyclable.
I understand there is little we can do about Wishbone being in our local community centre, however there is quite a bit we can do about any future leases by getting the CCC to change their procurement processes.
Email your local community board members and councillors (the formula for CCC email addresses is firstname.surname@ccc.govt.nz and copy in info@ccc.govt.nz).
Ask them to review their policy around how tenders are sought, the tendering process and how leases are awarded. The process needs to attract more applications from local businesses, should allow businesses with a history in the facility to retender if a new applicant has offered a very different amount, should work in partnership with communities who use the café, and include strong consideration of environmental and local economic effects.