Corporate volunteers join chefs to cook for a cause

Sunday, 1 February 2026

Lennox Jones, at front, and Sukhy Lally from Goodman Property Services volunteer in the kitchen during their Cooking for a Cause session.

Auckland food rescue charity KiwiHarvest has teamed up with the social enterprise Everybody Eats to support Women’s Refuge with ready-to-eat meals for women and children seeking safety.

The two organisations deliver Cooking for a Cause, an initiative in which corporate volunteers work alongside Everybody Eats chefs in their Glen Innes kitchens to transform rescued ingredients into nourishing meals.

The aims of the initiative are to reduce food waste, strengthen community connections, and ensure families arriving at the refuge have immediate access to warm, nutritious meals – with no added stress.

Demand for Women’s Refuge services typically increases during the summer holiday period, a time when households are under added financial, emotional and social pressure.

“Not only are we providing nourishing food for vulnerable women and their tamariki, we are also supporting Women’s Refuge so it can focus on the vital work it is dedicated to,” KiwiHarvest chief executive Angela Calver said.

KiwiHarvest chief Angela Calver, who says the initiative brings together “food donors, sponsors, volunteers and recipient agencies”.

Cooking for a Cause also offered a practical model for corporate volunteering, she said.

Rescued food is turned into chef-guided meals by corporate volunteers, then distributed through Women’s Refuge to safe houses and transitional housing.

“This ‘full-circle’ approach means the same effort can address immediate need, reduce food waste, and involve businesses directly in community support,” Calver said.

Frances Fergusson from Women’s Refuge Te Whare Āio, the Māori women’s refuge service in Auckland, said Cooking for a Cause was making a difference when it mattered most.

“Women often arrive at the refuge at all hours with nothing. The last thing they need is the added stress of shopping or cooking.

“These ready-to-eat meals mean we can offer something nourishing straight away, heat and eat, no fuss, and no added stress.

“This is the second year we’ve received meals through Cooking for a Cause, and it makes a real difference. Our wahine love them.”

All three organisations say the partnership is also about building understanding of the issues each sees on the ground – food insecurity, food waste and family violence – and encouraging wider support for the services that families rely on.

KiwiHarvest collects surplus food from supermarkets, distribution centres, growers, and manufacturers and redistributes it to more than 235 recipient charities across New Zealand.

“Collaboration is at the heart of what KiwiHarvest does,” Calver said.

“Cooking for a Cause showcases our ecosystem in action – food donors, sponsors, volunteers and recipient agencies coming together to support people and whānau as they seek help and work towards change.”

Since its founding, KiwiHarvest has rescued more than over 18 million kilograms of good food that would otherwise have gone to waste, nourishing people instead of landfill.

The retail value of this food is more than $124 million, food that was otherwise considered to have no value.

Everybody Eats is a charitable restaurant that operates on a pay-what-you-can basis, with locations in Auckland and Wellington.

It works with food rescue partners and community organisations to transform surplus and donated food into nutritious, chef-prepared three-course meals.