Agricultural charity Meat The Need is launching a rural telethon to try and raise one million meals for New Zealanders in food poverty.
The 12-hour live stream is being launched to encourage farmers to donate beef, sheep and milk to the cause.
"We've already got the processing plants, foodbanks, we just need to connect up all the dots along the way and make it happen," Meat The Need co-founder Wayne Langford told Newshub.
The rural telethon will broadcast online on Thursday and is thought to be the first of its kind in the country. Langford came up with the idea to address household poverty.
"Twenty-one percent of New Zealanders suffer from food insecurity every year, so that's one-fifth of our population."
Farmers will be combining their skills to support the people who need it most.
"Rural and urban New Zealand has got to work together and an event like this brings rural and urban New Zealand together and we need that right now," telethon host Matt Chisolm told Newshub.
The Big Feed telethon is aiming to raise one million meals in one day, which equates to 1800 cows or 250,000 litres of milk.
"Farmers can donate from anywhere in the country. We simply then take the value of that animal and turn it into product and then distribute it out amongst the food bank," Langford said.
Non-farmers can donate virtual livestock and cash to the cause.
"It's a really tough time of the year - [it's] Christmas - and for so many people especially if you are struggling to make ends meet," Chisholm said.
Lanford said: "It's not just a farming telethon, it's a telethon to feed the country."
