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The beer fridge at the old Cannons Creek bowling club is chock-full of vegetables and fruit these days. Upstairs, past the club’s honours board, there’s a long table for shared kai, and a childcare space full of toys and books. From a large adjacent kitchen comes a clatter of bowls and pot lids, laughter and conversation from 10 people who are learning how to cook.
Outside, the bowling turf has been replaced with a large community garden, including compost bins and seed-raising houses. In amongst it all, 8- and 9-year-olds from nearby Winley School – decile 1 in the old language – are having their weekly visit, discussing the role of earthworms, feeding their morning tea scraps into the compost, and taste-testing greens they’ve picked from the vege beds.
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Welcome to WELLfed, a place where food and cooking is helping to strengthen families, improve nutrition and build community bonds in east Porirua.
Porirua locals Kim Murray and Rebecca Morahan started WELLfed seven years ago, working initially with a bunch of volunteers to run one cooking class a week at Holy Family School in Cannons Creek. Within three years, it had expanded to the point where the operation needed a permanent home, and they took on a 15-year lease from the Porirua City Council for the bowling club, which had sat empty for four years.
These days, 70 people a week come to classes to learn to cook or improve their skills and produce healthy meals on a small budget. They eat together after class and take the results of their efforts home for their whānau, along with a bag of fresh fruit and vegetables from the Hauora Kai fruit and vegetable co-op which distributes every Tuesday out of the Cannons Creek Salvation Army centre.
The idea for WELLfed emerged from of a batch of banana and chocolate-chip muffins that Murray made and took to a community group she was volunteering with. A woman at the meeting asked her how to make them, so a few days later, she visited the woman’s house – home to a family of six – with ingredients, equipment and her mother’s muffin recipe.
In the kitchen, Murray opened the cupboards and saw that there was nothing but plates and cups. In the fridge were only milk and antibiotics.
They made the muffins, and the woman told Murray when they met again that she had baked the recipe over and over, sharing them at church, at her children’s school and with friends. They were a source of pride and generosity.
For Murray and her friend, Morahan, it reinforced their belief that food could be a medium for learning, strengthening relationships and a gateway to further skill development.
Over 1000 people have come through WELLfed’s free programme since then, with the benefits flowing out to family members, including children who are taught to cook by WELLfed-trained parents. Everyone who comes through the free programme is kitted out with pots, pans and other cooking equipment for their homes. In a low-income community, says Murray, investing in household infrastructure like this is risky. “When you haven’t got a lot of money left over at the end of the week, you can’t afford to buy baking powder or a whisk for something that may not work out.”
Most learners arrive at WELLfed on the recommendation of others, and some are referred by social service agencies and NGOs. As a charity, funding comes from multiple sources – government agencies, philanthropic donations, old-fashioned movie night fundraisers. Volunteers pour hours of unpaid labour into maintaining and improving the building.
There are 21 staff now, including tutors and kaiawhina (support workers) who help participants take further steps, such as getting drivers’ licences, attending anti-family violence courses, and undertaking further training and employment.
Over half of the staff came into the fold as learners in the kitchen. Cooking tutor Donna Hiroki started out supporting her daughter, who needed to learn to cook for her child. She then completed the programme herself, which runs one morning a week for six months. She could cook before, but it was all boil-ups, stir-fries and roasting.
WELLfed “gave me an education about what was healthy and what was not. I didn’t know that before.” Hiroki had a household of five, including grandchildren, and they were living week to week. The course taught her how to shop more effectively, and how to make decent meals from what was in the cupboards.
But there was much more to it than just what she was able to put on the table. “I started looking after myself and started feeling good about myself and I started encouraging others … Eating together [after class] brings connections and relationships. It’s a place you can feel comfortable. There’s is no judgement, and there’s no bad talk.
“Food brings love and connection and stories. Often people come in here with low self-esteem and low confidence, but when they leave here, their kete is filled up.”
For Hiroki, it’s been a pathway to improved mental health, better nutrition for the family, empowerment and self-belief.
She’s flourishing, and the benefits are flowing on to her children and grandchildren. They cook with her at home these days and eat together at the table, from which phones and other devices are banned.
Hiroki is now part of WELLfed’s outreach. In April, she taught new learners as part of a trial of the programme in Wellington, held in partnership with the Wellington City Mission.
Murray and Morahan – with backgrounds in banking and IT respectively – developed WELLfed from the outset as a repeatable model, documenting systems that could be set up in other communities.
But they are cautious about expansion. For starters, there’s a six-month waiting list in Porirua, and meeting that need is a priority. Sustainable funding is crucial before starting in another community, and so is deep local involvement. “For us, it’s about going into a community and embedding,” says Murray.
