Coffee and cake come back to Moerewa

A new hospitality course promises to be a win-win for Moerewa, where a popular cafe has reopened after a year and young folk are learning new skills.

Last year's closure of Tuna Cafe dismayed the mid-north town but the doors are now open again with NorthTec students operating the coffee machine and turning out muffins and sandwiches.

The 15-week Tourism and Hospitality Skills level 2 certificate has been running since May 28 with the students spending two days a week on theory and two days, currently Wednesdays and Thursdays, running the cafe. June 13 was the students' first nervous day serving the public.

Tutor Del Bristow said the closure of the popular cafe had been a loss to the town.

"To reinvent the cafe and have it open again we had to explore other ways of making it happen, and having a course was a neat way of doing it. It's not only got our cafe open again but it's also upskilling local young people," she said.

The current batch of students were aged 16-51, and all but two are from Moerewa. Their backgrounds varied from school leavers to long-term unemployed and single parents.

Running the cafe gave them training in food safety, cooking, baking and using the coffee machine; more importantly, the course taught them about presentation and communication and lifted their self-esteem.

"We're building on values of manaakitanga [looking after others], which is a key ingredient of customer service," Ms Bristow said.

The menu was set by course requirements and consisted of sandwiches, muffins, slices and rolls. Soups, hotpots and quiche would follow as the students grew in confidence.

Eighteen-year-old Shontai "Belle" Beattie said she had already mastered the coffee machine and her classmates were "cool as".

Manaia Katipa, 19, said he had long wanted to work in hospitality and had already completed a baking course in Auckland.

"Even when I was at Bay College, food was something I was good at and interested in. If you're not passionate about your job or what you want to do, it's a waste of time doing it."

Manaia said the course had so far taught him about communicating with customers and making coffee. He was considering a chef's course next and possibly hospitality management.

"I'm actually really liking it, it's at my level."

The cafe is owned by He Iwi Kotahi Tatou Trust and shares premises with Tatou Design Gallery.