Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Matt Hepworth spoke with Kere to Country CEO Jessica Wishart

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Matt Hepworth spoke with Kere to Country CEO Jessica Wishart · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well.
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  Speaker 2: A new social enterprise owned and runned by Aboriginals will
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: deliver more affordable food to communities in Central Australia. Kia
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  Speaker 2: to Country aims to address the food inequalities faced by
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  Speaker 2: Aboriginal communities in Central Australia. To talk more about it
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  Speaker 2: is Kya to Country CEO Jessica Wishat. Jessica, Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, morning, Thank you for having me our pleasure.
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  Speaker 2: Jessica. Can you tell us about Kia to Country.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so Courra it's pronounced my apologies. No, that's okay.
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  Speaker 1: Career to the Country. We're just setting up and literally
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  Speaker 1: at the beginning stage of establishing our company. But we're
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  Speaker 1: based in Alice Springs and we'll be servicing looking to
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  Speaker 1: service Alice Springs, Penet Creek and about one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty clicks from Alice Springs by communities within one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty clicks and outstations of our springs by the
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  Speaker 1: end of January twenty twenty one. So at the moment,
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  Speaker 1: we're in our springs and we're being doing community consultations
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  Speaker 1: and just getting some feedback of our communities, establishing some
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  Speaker 1: more partnerships and in and around Alas Springs with communities
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  Speaker 1: and some of the stores, and we got a bakery
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  Speaker 1: on board, and just getting other partnerships in board with
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  Speaker 1: businesses and yeah, looking to start our operations in January.
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  Speaker 2: What inspired you to come up with this?
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  Speaker 1: So basically we come. We've been living in Adelaide, my
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  Speaker 1: family and I've been living in Adelaide for the past
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  Speaker 1: ten years, but always coming home to Alice Springs. Alice
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  Speaker 1: Springs is home for us. And we were here in
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  Speaker 1: March April of this year when COVID pandemic started and
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  Speaker 1: they the communities were going into a bit of a
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  Speaker 1: lockdown for their safety, and we were a bit worried
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  Speaker 1: about the family that we had out in the community,
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  Speaker 1: so we went into town to buy some food to them,
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  Speaker 1: and we were just sort of astounded by the prices
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  Speaker 1: that we were paying for the meat in town and
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  Speaker 1: in the communities. And with that, you know, my family
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  Speaker 1: and I, my brothers and I got talking. We went
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  Speaker 1: back to Adelaide. We were talking to a friend of our,
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  Speaker 1: Thomaticks and then another friend of ours, Robin Barrell, who's
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  Speaker 1: a farmer, and you know, from these conversations come the
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  Speaker 1: idea of cre at a Country because it's a service
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  Speaker 1: that we actually get from our friend Robin in Adelaide,
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  Speaker 1: where our meat, our lamb is actually delivered to our
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  Speaker 1: door at a much cheaper price than what they pay
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  Speaker 1: for here in non territory. And we just thought this
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  Speaker 1: is a service that our community should be getting. Why
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  Speaker 1: can't they have their meat delivered in bulk to their
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  Speaker 1: door as well.
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  Speaker 2: It is a very good point and a very good
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  Speaker 2: idea because I guess, you know, living in Darwin or
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  Speaker 2: even in Alice Springs, you know, I'm sure there'll be
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  Speaker 2: a handful of you know, food delivery services available that
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  Speaker 2: provide you know, different food options and different pricing options
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  Speaker 2: as well. But when you look at our remote communities,
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  Speaker 2: you've really only got one option as to where you
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  Speaker 2: can source and pay for your food.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we understand that the community store is a
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  Speaker 1: really important part of our communities and we want to
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  Speaker 1: work with our community stores the best that we can.
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  Speaker 1: We would love to have cre At a Country Meat
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  Speaker 1: on the show else in the community stores as well,
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  Speaker 1: So we hope that we get most of the services
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  Speaker 1: and the stores on involved and on board with us.
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  Speaker 1: But we also really are passionate about making sure that
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  Speaker 1: our residents have choice and have a variety and have
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  Speaker 1: the choice and an option to go elsewhere and source
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  Speaker 1: their kura, you know, from our.
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  Speaker 2: Jessica, as I understand it, you'rebviously in the planning or
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  Speaker 2: the final planning stages at the moment when and where
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  Speaker 2: will it be available.
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  Speaker 1: So we are based in our springs and our pilot
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  Speaker 1: will be starting, like I said in our springs panet
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  Speaker 1: Crekan one hundred and fifty clicks from our springs. So
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  Speaker 1: our pilot will take off in January where we go
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  Speaker 1: out and actually do a sign up phase. So we'll
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  Speaker 1: go out to the communities, the communities that you know
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  Speaker 1: and want us out to see them and visit them
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  Speaker 1: to have a hold of barbecue, have a sign up
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  Speaker 1: day where people sign up to the packs that they
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  Speaker 1: want and the best payment methods for their family, and
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  Speaker 1: then every six weeks the meat will be dropped off.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm just reading here payment for the meat packs
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  Speaker 2: will be available in the form of interest free payment
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  Speaker 2: plans as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, we have interestry paysans vise center pay here.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's an excellent initiative, Jessica, Are you looking for
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  Speaker 2: sponsors or suppliers to still come on board.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's whe we're out. At the moment, we're really
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  Speaker 1: pushing hard, like we're social enterprise that we're the startup,
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  Speaker 1: and this business is a massive startup, so you know,
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  Speaker 1: we're finding it a little bit more difficult to get
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  Speaker 1: the funding behind us, but we're getting there. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: we're really pushing to get some support from local people,
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  Speaker 1: from services, from businesses, private businesses, anyone that really has
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  Speaker 1: an interest or just wants to give back to a
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  Speaker 1: known enterprise that's actually having an impact, the grassroots impact
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  Speaker 1: for Aboriginal people. On our website, you can see how
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  Speaker 1: you can donate and sponsor and there are things that
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  Speaker 1: you can get for sponsorship as well.
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  Speaker 2: And is it just supplies you're looking for or I
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  Speaker 2: guess you're looking for people who can help transport and
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  Speaker 2: deliver them as well.
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  Speaker 1: Well. We've actually we're going into partnership with a couple
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  Speaker 1: of freighting companies, but at the moment, it's really about
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  Speaker 1: financial support at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, understandable, Jess. Can you give us that website once
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  Speaker 2: more if people are interested in sponsoring and coming on board.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So you can find us at Curt Country dot com.
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  Speaker 1: Dot au and on Facebook, cur Country and Instagram at
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  Speaker 1: cur Country.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Jesse, it sounds like a wonderful initiative. We look
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  Speaker 2: forward to seeing how it goes. Keep us posted and yeah, look,
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  Speaker 2: if there's anything else we can do, please let us know.
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  Speaker 1: Fantastic, Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Jessica, have a great day you too. By now cheers.
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  Speaker 2: That is Jessica Wishat from Kura to Country the CEO.
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  Speaker 2: That's a new social enterprise owned and run by Aboriginals
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  Speaker 2: to deliver more affordable food to communities in Central Australia.
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  Speaker 2: Now I did pronounce it wrong a little bit earlier,
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  Speaker 2: but if you are searching for it online, it's Kourra
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  Speaker 2: spelt k er to country. The words to country, so
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  Speaker 2: it's Kura to country, k ere to country. If you
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  Speaker 2: want to search for them online and find out a
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  Speaker 2: little with more