We Care About

Our Environment

At Kāre we are passionate about working in harmony with nature and the environment.

In the interests of looking after ours, we endeavour to reduce our impact on the environment and to minimise our carbon footprint. Our products are, however, transported via ship throughout the world and in doing so we accept that we are adding indirectly to carbon emissions. To offset this impact we have planted 22 hectares of trees on our whanau land at PuhiPuhi, Karetu and Whakapara in the Taitokerau/Northland region of New Zealand. We continue to seek ways to minimise our carbon footprint and to reduce our impact on our environment

When using Kare products please take care to dispose of packaging appropriately. Our packaging can be recycled.

Our Community

Access to quality nutritional food should be a fundamental right of all people.

ChildFund - We currently sponsor underprivileged children in the following countries: Thailand Vietnam East Timor Kenya Indonesia Ethiopia Philipines

Sadly, despite the fact that enough food is produced each year to feed twice the world’s population, many communities and families suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Our Kāre team are active sponsors of the programme Childfund, which assists in providing clean water, food and education to children in less developed countries. For a little more than US$1 per day, it is possible to provide for the food and needs of one child in a developing or third world country. For more information on Childfund and making a difference to our world, please go to www.childfund.org.nz

OXFAM New Zealand

We also donate to Oxfam, an organisation dedicated to tackling poverty and injustice. To find out more about how you could help Oxfam go to www.oxfam.co.nz Gifts that Grow: ChildFund and Oxfam both offer programmes that provide meaningful gifts that will change the lives of vulnerable children in some of the world’s poorest communities. As part of this programme Kāre has purchased wheelchairs for disabled children in Sri Lanka and calves for Vietnamese families. Cows are a source of rich manure for the fields, enabling a family to grow nutritious healthy food for their children and raise crops for sale at market. The calves will go on to have calves of their own, providing food and income and lifting the whole family out of poverty.

Our Honey Bees

A bee-less world wouldn’t just mean the end of honey – Einstein said “if the honeybee became extinct, then so would mankind”.

It has been estimated that up to 80% of our food resources are directly or indirectly dependent upon bees for pollination and continued survival.

Help Save The Honey Bee

How You Can Help Our Honey Bees

It has been well documented that the health and numbers of honey bees and many native bee species is under threat globally.

Unless you are anaphylactic to bee stings, try not to swat bees – please do not squash honey bees when they land on you or if you see them near by. Unlike wasps, bees can only sting once. When they do sting, they die as a result – therefore they only sting as a last resort mechanism to protect against threats. If you don’t swat at bees and don’t squash them, they won’t sting you.

Please look after our little friends – they mean you no harm, and they are essential for human survival.

AND THERE’S MORE YOU CAN DO TO HELP….

There are a number of things that you can do at your own home to help to try and maintain bee numbers in your local environment.

Plant bee friendly trees and plants – If you aim to attract honeybees, you’ll need bee-friendly flowers that produce ample amounts of pollen and nectar. Most modern ornamentals, such as hybrid roses, no longer produce enough pollen and nectar to attract bees – if a blossom doesn’t provide enough pollen or nectar, bees will totally ignore it. For the best bee lures plant old-fashioned or heirloom varieties. Research has shown that gardens with 10 or more bee-friendly plant types host the most bee visitors. It is important to plant flowers that bloom at different times of the year so that there are always sources of pollen available. Also, plant some rows of bushes close together to create ideal honey bee habitats.

Provide Water – Bees need to drink too. Place a saucer of water in the garden – place pebbles or twigs and fern in the water so the bee has something to stand and climb on to prevent it from drowning. Wet sand is another good option for providing a supply of moisture that is safe for bees to drink from.

Spray carefully – Use bee friendly sprays. Many common lawn and garden chemicals are lethal to bees, while others may weaken their immune systems, allowing parasites, disease or other stresses to finish them off. Sprays that contain neonicotinoids have repeatedly been linked to bee losses. When using bee friendly sprays, spray in the late evening once bees have gone to bed for the night.

Contact your local beekeeper’s association if you see a swarm – they will usually send a local beekeeper out to collect it and will then look after it.

Discover the Honey that suits your needs

Manuka Honey is the honey that New Zealand is famous for. Bees gather the nectar from the white-pink flowers of our native Manuka tree and from this they make Manuka Honey.