Every fish has the potential to feed more people.

That's the thinking behind the Kai Ika Project, an initiative led by LegaSea and Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae that is transforming what was once considered waste into a valuable food source for communities across New Zealand.

LegaSea's mission is to restore the abundance, biodiversity, and health of New Zealand's marine environment. Through advocacy, education, community partnerships, and initiatives like Kai Ika, the organisation is working to rebuild healthy fisheries and ensure New Zealanders can continue to access sustainable kai moana for generations to come.

The Kai Ika Project was born from a simple observation: while many families struggle to access affordable, nutritious food, large quantities of perfectly edible fish heads and frames were being discarded after filleting. Instead of allowing those fish parts to go to waste, the project collects, chills, and redistributes them free of charge to marae, community organisations, and families who value them as food.

Since its inception, more than 665,000 kilograms of fish parts have been repurposed, with the initiative expanding from Auckland to Wellington. Since launching in Wellington in 2022, more than 52,000 kilograms of kaimoana has been distributed to local communities. Beyond improving food security, the project is also encouraging better utilisation of every fish harvested, reducing waste, and strengthening connections between fishers, volunteers, marae, and local communities.

While those numbers are impressive, it's the stories behind them that truly capture the impact of the project.

One of the team's most memorable moments came shortly after community distribution began in Naenae. A local man volunteered to help distribute kaimoana each week, occasionally taking a couple of fish heads home for himself. Over time, he began taking more home, transporting them in two chilly bins on a cart behind his bicycle.

It soon became clear that he wasn't collecting them for himself. He was sharing them with neighbours throughout his housing block and, for several kaumātua, preparing and delivering hot meals.

When the Kai Ika team delivered a bulk supply directly to his home one week, they watched as neighbours from a diverse range of nationalities and backgrounds arrived at his door carrying pots and wearing huge smiles.

"It was a beautiful thing to witness. The generosity, respect, gratitude, joy and unity as a hyper-local community came together, with an unassuming man at the heart of it all."

Behind every community initiative is a team managing the work that keeps everything running smoothly. For LegaSea, PaySauce helps simplify payroll by automating wage calculations, PAYE, KiwiSaver contributions, leave entitlements, and compliance reporting, allowing the team to spend less time on administration and more time delivering impact.

"PaySauce helps us manage payroll efficiently by automating many of the time-consuming payroll tasks. It generates the compliance reports we need for our annual audit, helping our admin team save time, maintain accuracy, and meet our payroll obligations with confidence."

From reducing food waste and improving food security to strengthening communities and protecting New Zealand's marine environment, the Kai Ika Project demonstrates how a simple idea can create meaningful, lasting change when people come together with a shared purpose.

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