What’s next for the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation?

What’s next for the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation? That is a very good question that the Foundation’s Board and staff are putting effort into answering.

At the end of March, board members met for a strategy session.  Topics we discussed included: what the Foundation is, and isn’t; what’s happening in the external world, who do we serve, what is the gap we fill in the world, and what will success look like.

The resulting strategic plan targets the following outcomes:

• Better nutrition and healthier communities for Aotearoa NZ
• Contribution to two of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals:
  • SDG 2 Zero Hunger
  • SDG 3 Good Health and Well-Being

These outcomes are very aspirational and won’t be achieved by the Foundation in the short term, or working alone. To get us started on the road, the annual plan for financial year 2024 includes undertaking a situational analysis for the future role of the Foundation. This will include developing a stakeholder ecosystem identifying agendas, interests, risks and issues. We will also be continuing our work providing community support through Just Cook programmes and keeping on with providing evidence-based nutrition information. Sustainability will be a focus across all aspects of the Foundation.  Last but not least financial stability, by necessity, is our highest priority: increasing income to enable more expenditure, and focus on membership/sponsorship. To the last point the Board are finalising a comprehensive sponsorship policy and a funding strategy will be developed.

The world including NZ is continually changing and that change has ramped up in recent years. It is important for the Foundation to understand where it fits, hence the situational analysis work, and how it can best serve its members and NZ communities.