One Tonne of mince to be donated for every landmark  "The Hickey Tour" meets

ANZCO has jumped on board to support "The Hickey Tour" and will be donating one tonne of mince for every land mark our hitch hiker meets on his journey from Auckland to Lincoln. 

Colin Hickey, a North Waikato dairy farmer, started his journey dubbed "The Hickey Tour" at 4am, thumbing his way down the country for The Big Feed live rural telethon. 

The Big Feed live telethon kicked off at 6 this morning and is aiming to raise 1.2 million mince and milk meals for food banks across the country across 14 hours. 

One of the first callers on the line was ANZCO, saying they will be donating one tonne of mince for every landmark Hickey meets down the country.

"I am completely and utterly blown away by this, it's quite overwhelming really," a speechless Colin said. 

He's currently in Hamilton at the farming family statue in Victoria Street, which is his first landmark and signifies the first tonne of mince to be donated. 

"I just have so much gratitude for ANZCO right now, one tonne of mince is a massive donation, let alone for every land mark I get to. I thought this was going to be an entertaining hitch hike down the country to raise awareness of the telethon, but now there's a whole lot of responsibility to make it work and get to as many places as I can." 

"If all I have to do is stand in front of a statue to get one tonne of mince, that's bloody easy. And if that's all I have to do so someone else can get a feed then that's amazing and I won't stop till I get to Lincoln." 

A spokesperson for ANZCO said they are extremely proud to be involved with Meat the Need's The Big Feed by donating mince packs to food banks. 

"ANZCO acknowledges that the demand for protein is significant and is pleased to be able to support an initiative impacting the growing number of people around the country who need assistance to feed their families."

Read more about The Hickey Tour here. 

The Big Feed live rural telethon is being livestreamed on Meat the Need's Facebook, YouTube and website meattheneed.org. 

Anyone can donate to The Big Feed by texting "feed" to 3494 to give $3. 

Donations of  sheep, beef, deer, milk, funds or "virtual animals" can also be made online now at meattheneed.org, or by calling the team on 0800 632 884.