Resilience through unity was a recurring battle cry at the Feilding & District Impact Awards, where a Himatangi egg producer took top honours and a stalwart of enterprise and advocacy was honoured.
The Egg Project claimed the supreme accolade at the Feilding Civic Centre on Saturday night, after earlier winning the innovation prize, while former mayor, business owner and community advocate Margaret Kouvelis was recognised with the Hall of Fame Award.
Founded in 2019 by Pip Chrystall and Brian Kennerley, the free range egg delivery scheme has grown its customer base by 20% year on year while also donating 40,000 eggs and raising $60,000 for schools.
Despite the success, Chrystall was quick to acknowledge challenging economic times when receiving the award for innovation.
“It’s been a long seven years for so many people, the pivoting, the passion, the backbone, the changing; and I’ve seen that from so many different people, and so many of their businesses.”
Egg producer Kennerley lost 40% of his commercial customers when the Covid pandemic closed restaurants and killed the hospitality trade in 2020.
Chrystall said they were faced with an over-supply of 10s-of-thousands of eggs and the prospect of killing chickens because they couldn’t afford to feed them.
“We went to the Manawatū Business Chamber and I learned how to market and do so much of what I did to grow The Egg Project, obviously supported by Brian, and I was the one out delivering.
“And we grew it, and now we’ve got just over 7000 customers that we deliver eggs to.”
Kouvelis was a popular Hall of Fame recipient, a “leader, a connector, a champion of community” who had made a significant impact as a civic servant, business owner, founder of not-for-profit employment pathway scheme Talent Central, and a chief architect of bringing the Rural Games to Manawatū.
To be thanked by the community she had “absolutely loved serving” was deeply humbling, she said.
Kouvelis spoke of the district as being an unexpected place for exceptional endeavours, from the rise of Fonterra and its dairy production to her memory of being saluted by an ageing women’s marching band and seeing the joy on their faces.
It was a great example of positive mental health, she said, and it underpinned the genuine goodness at the heart of people in Manawatū.
“Whatever the world dishes up to us, I know the goodness here, the values here, will last, and if anything happens, we will all go down holding hands and being so thankful for having been here.
“So go on, people, keep striving.”
The awards night was organised by Feilding & District Promotions, with organisations and individuals nominated in a range of categories before a panel of judges selected finalists and winners.
2025 Feilding & District Impact Awards: Winners list
- Supreme Award: The Egg Project
- Hall of Fame Award: Margaret Kouvelis
- Community Impact: Brian Mead Community Garden
- Customer Service Impact: Firmly Fit
- Environmental Impact: Feilding Repair Cafe
- Innovation Impact: The Egg Project
- Best Emerging Business: Empowerment & Potential
- Impact Player: Dr Ellen Ford
- Young Leaders: Jessica Sulzerger
- Putting Feilding on the Map: Feilding Art Society
Article originally found at https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360808199/pivoting-passion-backbone-perseverance-applauded-business-awards
