Media Release – LIFE Soup Kitchen Christmas Dinner
1 300 people anticipated at the inaugural LIFE Soup Kitchen Christmas Dinner
To celebrate the festive season, LIFE Soup Kitchen Christmas Dinner aims to ensure that the most vulnerable people in
our communities don’t go hungry, with the provision of a nutritious hot meal on Wednesday 12 December at the Vodafone
Events Centre.
Explains Pastor Ned So’e, Otara resident and founder of LIFE Soup Kitchen, “We will be using the skills of our Soup
Kitchen chefs to prepare a delicious feast. The menu includes: Christmas ham, roast vegetables, beef curry, chop suey as
well as a pasta & seafood salad followed by dessert. Countdown have generously provided some of the food, including bottled water, and
Fonterra is supplying the dessert. I doubt anyone will be going hungry on the night!"
Attendance is by invite only with Soup Kitchen ‘regulars’ and their families having been identified and invited by the
Soup Kitchen teams and by partner organisations over recent weeks.
“There will be a few surprises throughout the evening, and with well-known local identity and DJ, Brian Sagala MC’ing,
there will be loads of laughs as well’ adds Ps Ned.
LIFE Soup Kitchen has four locations across Auckland, namely: Papakura, Otara, Mangere and most recently, in Glenn
Innes, which sees the organisation feeding up to 300 people weekly in each district.
Says Tony Kake, Papakura Marae CEO and host of the Papakura Soup Kitchen, “Just one meal eases The pain and makes a huge
difference.” Christmas Box, another of LIFE Community’s initiatives, will spread further joy at the dinner. LIFE
Community Manager, Ms Lili Lemalu comments, “All families present will receive a food box that provides nutritious meals
for four to six people, as well as a few extra treats. Christmas Box has been in operation since 2001 and in that time
has delivered approximately 100, 000 boxes. As well as a Christmas Box, all children there (up to the age of 17 years)
will receive a wrapped gift courtesy of Prezzy Tree. ” Concludes Lemalu, “For some children, this may be the only gift
they receive”.
The LIFE Soup Kitchen Christmas Dinner will be staffed by volunteers from LIFE Soup Kitchen, STRIVE Community Trust
(providers of transitional housing), Auckland Council Team from Otara and several other key partner organisations.
ENDS
Editor’s Notes:
The LIFE Soup Kitchen Christmas Dinner will be held at the Vodafone Events Centre, Manukau, 6PM Wednesday 12th December
2018.
For more information about LIFE Community and LIFE Soup Kitchen visit: www.lifecommunity.org.nz