Martin Reading from Food for Families, left, and Abon Wastney from Adra Care, in the caravan that Adra has donated Martin. Photo: Andrew Board.

Free food in hot demand

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When Martin Reading committed to renting a space at the Victory Community Centre a year ago to cook hot meals for the community, he had no idea if anyone would turn up.

Twelve months on and he’s expanded to Tahuna – with plans to take on the whole region.

Martin’s Food for Families started as an idea to get left over produce from market gardeners and use it to cook healthy, hot food. He started in Victory and now has around 50 people turning up every Friday night to feed themselves and their families for free.

A month ago he started in Tahuna and already has more than 20 people turning up each Tuesday night. He says support from the community and businesses has seen his vision grow much quicker than he ever thought possible.

And just last week he was contacted by Abon Wastney of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, who had a caravan fully converted into a kitchen that the church’s charity group, Adra Care, use to help in emergencies, like the Christchurch earthquake. Martin says with the caravan he can take his Food for Families all over the top of the south. “I have a vision which I call the community kitchen, which I hope will be run by volunteers, with businesses paying our rent and with all the produce donated. So we’ll be able to cook in the one place and then we can go to the different community centres in the caravan. We’ll be able to go to Stoke, Tahuna, Motueka, Richmond.”

The ambitious plan is coming together with the YMCA offering their commercial kitchen to Martin, rent free, for another year.

“The support from people has been amazing and it’s great that we can provide this kind of service to people in need, with the help from other Nelsonians.’

Martin says the people come down for various reasons. Some are there every week, while many others are there for a few weeks before their situation improves and they move on. He says there are no free-loaders but plenty of good people, and along with his wife and daughter and the other volunteers, he’s happy to be able to help. “There’s is definitely a need and it feels good to help.”