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A free feast, for anyone who wanted to enjoy it, was served up on June 18 at the official launch of Love Soup Hibiscus Coast.
Around 60 people shared the meal at Whangaparaoa Hall, with many commenting that Love Soup’s food rescue and free meal service had come at just the right time, when the need in the community is getting more desperate.
Tables were piled with meat, vegetables, pies and potatoes: most of the food was “rescued” from local supermarkets, bakeries and other businesses and would otherwise have been wasted. Volunteers prepared and cooked the food, including filling a hangi oven with pork, chicken, potatoes and pumpkin. There was coconut rice, soup and plenty of bread. Dessert was cake, fruit and Love Soup director Julie King’s family recipe for ‘banana soup’ (see below).
Julie’s parents, June and Norman Wraith, did some of the cooking in their Stanmore Bay home. Whangaparaoa Hall was decorated in bright colours, and the menu had a Pacifica feel.
A team of volunteers was kept busy in the kitchen, serving food and clearing up. One of them, Maggie Chan, said the preparations took most of the day, and was a lot of fun. “Doing something positive for the community makes you feel so good,” she said.
Over dessert, live music was provided by the River Trust, which fosters new talent by providing gigs and mentoring.
Among the local organisations supporting the initiative is Business over Breakfast. Member Percy Wootten said at the launch that he was amazed how much Love Soup has achieved in a short time – the process of setting up the service began around two months ago and the Facebook page has nearly 400 members. He said it would be good to see other local organisations and businesses get involved with such a worthy cause.
Jenny Marshall from the recently launched Love Food, Hate Waste project, said she was impressed with what Love Soup had done with food otherwise destined for landfill. Her project, modelled on a similar one in the UK, is focused on reducing the amount of edible food that is wasted in the home, and includes a website, lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz with tips and recipes (HM June 15). There is a page where people can load their own waste-saving tips and recipes are also being crowd sourced.
As Julie King looked around the tables, where groups of six were enjoying dinner together, she said that the best thing is the fellowship. “I am grateful for all the support and I am sure that many friendships will be formed over these meals,” she said.
Free meals served
Anyone, of any age, is welcome to the free meals, which start this week.
Free lunches are available starting this week, on Wednesday, July 6, at Whangaparaoa Hall at 12pm and weekly thereafter.
The first free dinner is on Saturday, July 9 at 5pm at the same venue. There will also be a free family movie and dinner on Friday, July 15 at 5pm (the movie is Grease).
From August on, the free dinners will be every Sunday at Whangaparaoa Hall, 5.30pm.
Love Soup’s wish list
Want to help? Love Soup’s biggest need is sponsorship for petrol and car maintenance costs (tyres, etc) so that volunteers can pick up and deliver food. Meat and dairy products are the hardest to get and would be a big help. Contact Julie King, phone 022 074 9526.
Julie’s dad’s recipe for ‘banana soup’, from Samoa, and a video of how to make it is linked to this story on our website – it uses up bananas that might otherwise be thrown out.
