COMMUNITY NOTES

Pasta Café is back on the menu with lashings of love and hearty helpings

by Sue Fea

It’s been a highlight of Queenstown’s ski season for 21 years, delighting many a weary, homesick skifield worker longing for Mum’ s hearty home cooking, but Wakatipu Presbyterian Church’s annual free-for-all Pasta Café is just as much a hit with the locals.

Held at St Margaret’s Church in Frankton, the recipe hasn’t changed –lashings of love served up with endless, multiple free helpings loaded with pasta, homemade meat sauce, topped with cheese, veggies and bread. There’s even a vegetarian option and it’s all beautifully topped off with the highlight for many – delicious home-baking. And it’s not just the church Grandmas’ baking, assures Pastor Ian Guy, who’s been whipping up his specialty chocolate chip cookies.

A team of some 25 church volunteers range in age from 20 to 80, including restaurant and hotel chefs, and there’s a wonderful globally united atmosphere, with live entertainment, as well as crafts and games for the kids. More and more local families have been coming to Pasta Café in recent years to enjoy not only the free meal, but the loving atmosphere and community, says Ian.

“This isn’t just a free meal. We have everyone from those roughing it in cars to quite wealthy people. It’s a wonderful chance to connect and meet new people of all ages,” says Ian. “People keep asking for it every year.”

It’s become such a vital connection for the community that the Queenstown Lakes District Council has included Pasta Café in its Winterdaze programme, this year themed around Winter Wellness.

Council Wellbeing Programme Co-ordinator Samantha Saccomanno says while the free Friday night dinners are great, Pasta Café is also all about connection and bringing people together through kai. “It’s an amazing initiative that brings people together from all walks of life,” she says.

“The council and social agencies see us as filling a gap locally,” says Ian. With the cost of living and groceries rising so high, Ian’s expecting even bigger numbers this year. While in its central Queenstown heyday Pasta Café turned out as many as 500 free meals a night with lengthy queues down Stanley Street, volunteers are expecting to turn out more than 200 meals each night. Each Friday they go through 20kgs of mince and pasta, and copious blocks of cheese.

Kiwi Harvest is a wonderful contributor, bringing in surplus produce. However, this year the pickings are a bit slim, and with an even greater need anticipated amid increased living costs any donations are welcome, says Ian. The church has set up a Pasta Café Givealittle page to help cover any shortfall, but it’s largely all funded from church coffers.

To anyone who sees the event as charity, Ian says: ‘Leave your pride at the door.”

“We feel we’ve been blessed, and we want to share God’s goodness with others,” he says. “It’s our way of paying it forward and expressing our faith through our actions.”

St Margaret’s Church, cnr Ross and McBride Sts, Frankton

Four Fridays from August 4 | 6 pm – 8 pm

To donate: givealittle.co.nz/org/wpchurch

The housing crisis and how you can help?

If you have a spare room and want to show manaaki (hospitality and care) by offering someone a place to live but you’re not sure where to start, QLDC has created a Winter Manaaki page with lots of great advice.

On the page you can learn more about:

• Choosing whether you’d like to offer short-term accommodation or longer term.

• Links to Tenancy Services to find out all about the different types of tenancies you can provide.

• Taking in a boarder is another option - check out the link to read what advice the Citizens Advice Bureau imparts.

• Learn about tenancy rules, including resources about ‘flatmate agreements’ and guidance on short, fixed-term tenancy arrangements.

• Check out Trade Me’s great guide for interviewing potential boarders or flatmates.

• What are your tax implications? There is a link to the IRD for those who choose to rent a room in their main home.

• On Super? Make sure you understand any implications renting or sharing your accommodation might have on your payments.

Check out all the links at QLDC’s Winter Manaaki webpage by using the QR Code here:

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