It may not seem that extreme, but when you consider it is about the same as 77,000 single-serve mince pies, and it came from just 14 residential care homes within a nine-month period, it is a significant achievement.
It was accomplished by the University of Otago second-year PhD student as part of her thesis titled "Why Waste Happens: Understanding and Transforming Food Waste Practices in Aged Residential Care".
Ms Piere said inspiration for the research came when she saw a Ministry for the Environment-funded project, which aimed to reduce food waste within aged care facilities by 10%, through the introduction of a practical resource.
"What really attracted me to this project was how engaged it was with industry and making real tangible change for practices within a sector in New Zealand."
Aged care residential facilities average about 123kg of food waste (about 500 meals) per year in New Zealand, which means significant financial, operational and environmental costs.
With industry support from the Retirement Villages Association New Zealand, she co-designed the Waste Less, Care More toolkit with aged care providers, and piloted it in 14 facilities across New Zealand.
The pilot study demonstrated the value of using food waste data and behaviour science to co-design practical solutions which support both sustainability and resident wellbeing.
From the vast pool of 154 suggestions, she chose 28 of the most achievable interventions for her toolkit, which was essentially a guide for aged care providers to start addressing their food waste.
It included things like providing photographs of meal items with the menu, allowing residents to select a desired portion size, and including a weekly "resident’s choice" meal.
"Those things helped reduce food wastage. Nothing in there is groundbreaking.
"It’s just been having somebody spend the time to look at the system, to hear what people are saying, and recognise the areas where change could be achieved.
"A village manager can take this and go, all right, these are our operations. This is where we’re struggling.
"Here’s some targeted ways that we can address this problem, and then we can measure to see if it’s working."
Ms Piere was delighted to find her initiatives smashed the Ministry for the Environment’s 10% food waste target.
Between April and December 2025, the 14 care homes she piloted the initiative in managed to reduce food wastage by an average of 25%.
They also reported improvements in resident satisfaction, staff workflows, teamwork and sustainability awareness.
She said it was "a hugely gratifying result".
The kit had now been officially launched and she hoped it would be picked up by rest-homes across the country.
"We have five of the big six retirement village operators involved in the project.
"So we’ve designed it, we’ve trialled it, we’ve showed it’s effective and now it’s about getting that mass uptake.
"I think, absolutely, there’s potential that this could have a really big, tangible impact on reducing food waste."
