GoodMeasure foundations and forecast report for The Food Hub Collective 2025. Whenua to Whenua Experiential Learning Programme

Overview

Auckland Council, via the Community Impact Unit/Healthy Families South Auckland, commissioned the ImpactLab to report on and better understand ways to measure the social impact and explore options for future iterations of the Whenua to Whenua Experiential Learning Programme.

This programme was one of the initiatives run by the Food Hub Collective through the Papatoetoe Food Hub, project developed and conceived by Healthy Families South Auckland.  

The report highlights the impact story of this project and the programme, laying the foundations for further impact, its data collection and methodology, and the estimated Social Return on Investment (SROI). Additionally, it has a research informed outline of the potential programme and data estimates that can be used for a forecast of the programme if it was run in the future.

Generally, the average SROI is around $2, so this programme sits in line with other providers in terms of return on investment, if not slightly higher than the average, which is a great result.

(Julio Bin, Lead Systems Innovation, He oranga whānau | Healthy Families South Auckland)

Extract from the Executive summary

The Food Hub Collective was established in 2018 to operate the Papatoetoe Food Hub and is now the kaitiaki of the ‘Food Hub model’, an idea conceived and developed by Healthy Families South Auckland (HFSA) in 2017 through community co-design as a response to food insecurity and food waste. The Collective grew from grassroots organising into a trusted local institution. Its leadership is drawn from the community it serves, and its governance and business approach are shaped to be practical and scalable, focused on rescuing and upcycling surplus food into affordable and nutritious meals. Its Whenua to Whenua concept was designed to reconnect people with the whakapapa of kai, combining indigenous knowledge and hands-on practice to build local food resilience and sovereignty, enabling positive environmental and social impact.

In 2025, HFSA and the Food Hub Collective set out to better understand ways to measure their impact and explore options for future iterations of the previously run Experiential Learning programme. They partnered with ImpactLab to understand what data they need to tell a strong impact story, laying the foundations for future impact measurement through GoodMeasure Foundations. Additionally, the Food Hub Collective have worked with ImpactLab to develop a research informed outline of the potential programme and data estimates that can be used for a GoodMeasure Forecast of the programme if it was to run during the next financial year.

This report highlights the forecasted programme and the research that has been used to develop it. It identifies what data would be important for the Food Hub Collective to collect to help build internal alignment and take practical next steps to demonstrating impact once the programme is running. Additionally, this report includes:

• An intervention logic outlining how the programme aims to create change
• Research-informed insights to show how the programme has been developed in alignment with academic research, and options to further enhance outcomes and effectiveness 
• Data collection recommendations to consider once the programme begins to operate
• GoodMeasure Forecast results which includes a forecast of the social value that could be created by the programme over the next financial year. ...

November 2025

See also

Healthy Families New Zealand

Healthy Families South Auckland

ImpactLab

GoodMeasure Foundations

Papatoetoe Food Hub