Churches unite for community meals

Love Soup Hibiscus Coast has joined forces with local churches to run weekly community meals on the Hibiscus Coast. Starting next month, there will be a community meal run across suburbs on the Coast, from Whangaparāoa Peninsula and Ōrewa to Silverdale.

Meals are free to attend and all the meals are made and served by volunteers.

Love Soup founder Julie King says her volunteers are excited about meeting the need for more meals in our community.

“One of my greatest passions is the opportunity community meals provide to feed the need and create an environment of companionship for the lonely.”

At the same time, Love Soup will no longer run their meals weekly from the Whangaparāoa Hall and will instead shift to offering meals there twice a month, Julie says.

“We can be more efficient with our resources by working with other community groups to ensure there is a meal gathering on the Coast every week.”

Love Soup is partnering with Ōrewa Community Church, Coast Community Trust (affiliated trust of Coast Vineyard Church) and St Chads. Love Soup sources the donated produce and distributes it for cooks to make meals.

Some of the churches, including St Chads and Coast Community Trust, actually began their partnership with Love Soup to run meals some time ago.

Community Programmes Coordinator, Caitlin Watson, says during the 18 months that Coast Community Trust has been involved, the group has seen how people from all walks of life developed a sense of belonging, felt cared for and appreciated a free meal, especially with the increase in living costs.

“It is amazing to see the difference a bit of hospitality, care and connection can make for people,” Caitlin says.

Julie says discussions with local churches are ongoing, and more may come on board over time to offer meals.

Free Meals Menu

From March, free community meals will be held from 5pm at the following locations: First week of the month: Ōrewa Community Church, 235 Hibiscus Coast Highway, Red Beach Week 2: Coast Vineyard, 13 Agency Lane, Silverdale • Week 3: Whangaparāoa Hall, Whangaparāoa • Week 4: St Chads, 117 Centreway Road, Ōrewa • Week 5: Whangaparāoa Hall, Whangaparāoa Info: visit lovesoup.org.nz