Written by Maria Dine from Bellyful

We were privileged to have the Prefect teams from Waitākere and Liston Colleges reach out to us, asking if they could help with a charity cook.

Along with the help of Sarah Pepper,  they managed to cook 120 meals in 120 minutes that will go to feed families with newborn babies or sick children in our community. From the outset your students were organised, polite and enthusiastic, managing to pull the whole thing off in just a month. 

These young men and women worked so well as a team and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to cook with them. They are a credit to both of your schools and you should be very proud of the young people representing you.

Thank you to Luigi Menoro for reaching out, Sarah Pepper and Waitākere College for loaning us your space and all the Student Leaders for making it a fun and productive night.

Bellyful West Auckland delivers free frozen meals to anyone with a baby or young children, who doesn’t have that kind of support. These are often exhausted new parents, whānau where someone is unwell, has no extended family locally, or who are just simply going through a challenging patch. Last year our branch was able to support almost 300 whānau needing support.

Meals are cooked around once per month by a team of volunteers in a Cookathon, then packaged and frozen. Referrals are received through the Bellyful website from Plunket nurses, midwives, community social workers and family and friends and recipients themselves. Meals are then delivered by volunteers.

Bellyful West Auckland is one of 25 Bellyful branches throughout New Zealand. Bellyful was founded in 2009 in Franklin (south of Auckland) by Jacqui Ritchie and volunteers nationwide have since cooked and delivered over 230,000 meals to more than 42,000 whānau.

We aim to have a Bellyful within reach of every whānau that needs us – and we welcome donations and new volunteers! Visit bellyful.org.nz to find out more. Or donate HERE