When you have a tank full of juice and all of your equipment breaks down...

What do you do when you have a tank full of beautiful juice and your bottling equipment breaks down?

Covid-19 has made us think a lot about our community, working together, and how we can minimise waste.

This is what was top of mind when our equipment broke down, and where others would have dumped perfectly good juice we called on a friend. Leon, the founder of Goodpops answered.

I first met Leon when he showed up at the Chia Sisters factory after an intro from Pic from Pic's Peanut Butter. He had recently moved to Nelson with his young family and was getting ready to launch his new business Goodpops; handcrafted ice blocks made with all natural ingredients. He had passion for what he was doing, the type that is seen among many small business owners, the ones that care, that innovate, that work hard while smiling, the ones that we want to succeed.

Back to factory breakdown.....we let Leon know that this beautiful juice would only last another 2 hours, he arrived within half an hour (the beauty of living in Nelson) and made our juice into the best tasting ice blocks ever. So good that I can't believe we didn't think of doing it sooner. It won't be the last batch either, we are now thinking of how we can work together to bring this taste of the region to New Zealand summer. The summer that many small businesses are clinging to the hope of.

What this taught us and what has become ever more important over the last couple of months is the ability to adapt quickly and to know our community, understand where there is a need, where there is surplus, where are the resources and the knowledge. Is there a way we can create a national database that can join the dots? Or is this simply about getting to know each other a little bit better?