A small south Otago town has been fighting COVID-19 bureaucracy for the right to feed its elderly residents.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) shut down an unofficial meals on wheels service in Kaitangata a week into the lockdown.
But that left dozens of vulnerable residents stuck inside with no access to fresh food.
The Crescent Bar & Grill co-owner Jen Macdonald's been cooking up hearty home-cooked meals in her Kaitangata pub kitchen for the last 18 months.
She started doing meal deliveries after being approached by a local caregiver. When the lockdown began, Macdonald was initially flooded with orders.
But a week in, MBIE ordered the small town delivery service to shut down leaving many in the lurch.
"With 70s and oldies not being able to travel out and had to be isolated, we couldn't go to the New World supermarket in Balclutha. So if you've got family, it's fine. But if you haven't got family it's not so good," says Joyce Beck from the Kaitangata Promotions Group.
Many south Otago towns aren't serviced by official meals on wheels providers.
So after a vocal community campaign, authorities have made an exception allowing Macdonald to deliver her meals to vulnerable residents in the area.
"It was a real fight actually to get that. It was unbelievable really. And it was like a gap in Civil Defence, something that maybe they hadn't thought about," Macdonald says.
It's a huge relief for Kaitangata residents like Tiny Whittaker who can't get out to restock their cupboards.
"[It's] absolutely very important. In this area there's a lot of people here that don't even drive," she says.
"I don't go out at all. I'm not allowed out," says another meal delivery customer, Jack Oliver.
Families from as far away as Australia have ordered The Crescent's meals for parents now stuck in solo isolation.
A service warming hearts as well as feeding stomachs.
