12 Aug Supermarket shopping with RSE workers: Frozen chicken, bulk rice, super noodles and 89c bread
One of the luxuries Sitiveni Dakunimata looks forward to each week is some muffins or cake that he takes to church on a Sunday.
The Fijian arrived in New Zealand in May, three cold months ago.
He is part of a scheme which sees overseas workers, generally from the Pacific Islands, seasonally employed in the horticulture and viticulture industry. And like many of his fellow RSE workers, Dakunimata is here for one thing and one thing only – money. And that takes sacrifices.
Dakunimata said he generally only buys the food that he absolutely needs for the week, as he is here to make money to take home.
“We don’t normally do special occasions here so I only buy what I need unless it’s for church.”
He said he buys a lot of chicken because it is a luxury back home.
In New Zealand, he can pick up a large packet of drumsticks which he often cannot find back home, and if he does, it is too expensive.
Every Thursday, vineyard worker Take Thu and some of his workmates from Hortus do their big weekly supermarket shop at Blenheim’s Pak ‘n Save.
“It’s good here, the food is great, it’s not like Vanuatu,” Thu said.
“At home we go to the supermarket but it’s not like this,” he said. “We’d get things like rice from the supermarket and then vegetables at the local market.”
Thu said Wednesday was generally pay day, so on a Thursday night a group of them all pile in together and take a work van from their Duncannon accommodation to the supermarket.
The men were working on a vineyard in Seddon, located about 23km out of Blenheim.
Pak ‘n Save was on the other side of Blenheim, but Thu said it was their preferred supermarket because it had all the things they needed for the week, such as bulk chicken and cheap 89c bread.
The men shared food so they would generally cruise around the supermarket sharing a trolley too.
In his weekly shop, Thu piled multiple loaves of bread into his trolley. He said he liked that it did not cost too much and it filled him up.
These days a loaf of bread would last him a few days, in the past he was buying one every second day.
“It’s easy and cheap so I like to buy it,” Dakunimata said.
Fijian Petero Vakacoko bought a lot of noodles, because they were an easy snack. He also bought a 5kg bag of rice.
He said it would last him and one of the men about a week.
“I have it for breakfast so I sometimes go through it quickly,” Vakacoko said.
Thu said his rice could last longer, around two weeks, depending on what he decided to eat each week.
