Nourishing body and mind

Did you know that some kids come to school with no food in their bellies? How are they supposed to learn if their pukus are rumbling and they’re feeling hungry?

This is how Kura Kai came to be. Kura Kai wants to help our secondary school students to eat well and eat healthily—they also want our students to stay on at school to complete their education and so have better job choices later in life. And how do they do this? Their volunteers make delicious home-cooked meals that are frozen and distributed to partnering secondary schools. Ahead of time, Kura Kai supplies these schools with a freezer so that the meals are always on hand when the teachers or school staff see a need in their school community. Kura Kai also empowers these young ones (rangatahi) by encouraging them to also identify and help others they know who need a helping hand in the food department—now that’s real manaakitanga (respect and concern for others)!

Also wanting to help our rangatahi is Roxie’s Red-Hot Cantina and Taco Joint who paid-it-forward 30 meals to add to Kura Kai’s cache. That’s a lot of people who got to enjoy a meal and focus on schoolwork rather than food.

Roxie’s Cantina, at 113 Maunganui Road in Mount Maunganui, offers an array of Mexican-inspired and Californian street food. Think Quesadilla Pizza and Cheeto Chicken Pizza! There are old favourites like guacamole and new ones like Taquitos made with jackfruit (great for the skin!). Why not give them a go next time you’re in the Mount—and you can add a little extra when you come to pay so that Roxie’s can carry on with the pay-it-forwards.

CSC Buying Group and Mount Main Street were also part of the paying-it-forward to Kura Kai. They not only want our rangatahi to eat well, they also want to be part of offering these young ones a better future.