While it's not a new project, the team at Kai Ika Project Wellington are seeing a huge increase in demand from when they started 12 months ago.
Volunteer Chris Jupp reflects back on when he started with the company: "Our first drop we picked up two small poly bins [about 36 kgs].
"We brought it out, and just put the call out to see if there was any interest. Three hours later, they'd all been picked up."
Every Thursday, he and other volunteers rally together with a few of Wellington's fishmongers and other community groups to redistribute fish heads and frames — which are usually discarded after filleting a fish — directly back to the community.
Many of the recipients are facing the cost of living pinch.
"I grew up looking at a fish thinking the fillets. But most people look at the fish and think the whole of the fish. The fact that we're wasting perfectly good kaimoana any day of the week is a problem, but especially in the context of a cost of living crisis," Jupp said.
"We hear from people saying this is one of the only accessible meat based protein sources."
The project itself started in Auckland in 2016, a partnership between the Outboard Boating Club of Auckland and the Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae, who teamed up with non-profit LegaSea and the NZ Sport Fishing Council.
Among the project's missions on its website, it states it aims to minimise people's impact on the marine environment and to decrease fish waste that goes to landfill.
It also helps generate meaningful employment, as well as create a whole raft of social benefits, the website reads.
So far, they've distributed more than 300,000kgs of fish.
In some ways, Jupp sees his work with the team as bittersweet.
"The Kai Ika project shouldn't exist - it's birthed out of a broken system and a broken attitude towards fish parts that are perfectly good."
But he also said their fish deliveries are a cause for celebration, illustrated by the fact they were welcomed to Naenae with waiata and a strong community presence organised by Kokiri Marae.
General manager Teresea Olsen said she was initially hesitant for the partnership.
"Because I thought, oh my gosh, what if nobody comes? What are we going to do with all this fish!" she said.
"But actually it's been the opposite... You saw the lines of people, it doesn't take long for it to go."
Jupp and his Wellington team deliver anywhere up to 450kgs of fish every Thursday, partnering with the Fish Factory and Moana fishmongers in the capital.
"We wouldn't be doing this if they hadn't backed us. They [Fish Factory] are committed to maximum utilisation of the fish that comes through their doors. And we're really stoked to have Moana on board now as well," Jupp said.
"They really value our oceans, our fisheries, but also our people."
Stefanos Ioannidis at the Fish Factory said they're very happy to see people benefit from what they can spare.
He said their fish heads and frames usually get sent to be turned into fish oil products, but he welcomes these deliveries direct to communities.
"It's definitely not waste. There's some happy people out there, and we're happy that they're happy," he said.
"This by far is much better - seeing the community gaining from what we have."
And crucially, those who access the project are delighted too.
Alice, who collected fish at their Porirua pickup, said it's too expensive to go to the fish and chip shop anymore.
She gives koha when she can, out of appreciation for Jupp and his team.
Next in line was Moris, who filled up a laundry tub to take to his friends and others who couldn't make it.
"I usually just get a bin full and take it back over to the old people in Titahi Bay. It means a lot, it helps a lot of people," he said.
Seeing what it means to his community is why Jupp looks forward to every Thursday.
"This is a treat for me. It's good for my being, being amongst some beautiful, generous people.
"The community run this, I'm just the delivery guy," he said.
And he's hoping to deliver much more, with a lofty target of delivering twenty tonnes of fish next year.
There's just one problem. They don't have a delivery vehicle.
"We started doing this out of my private wagon. My wife wasn't too impressed with the smell at first, but she got on board.
"That failed its WOF, it's now out of action," Jupp said.
"So we begged, we borrowed, and my dad's been good enough to lend us this van in the meantime.
"He does use this van however to transport soft toys around. So no matter how hard I scrub at the end of the day, this thing smells, and those toys are starting to smell. So we need another option."
He's started a crowdfunding appeal to raise money to contribute to the cost of a new van.
"We've got communities' demands increasing, we've got communities who'd love us to bring fish to them, we've got ample fish supply, but we need a van, and we need resource to get that," Jupp said.
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