A team of seven has been assembled in Dunedin to cook a variety of nutritious meals for those who come to its foodbank.
Project co-ordinator Vince Jones said those in need were able to apply for a hot meal paid for with funds raised from the St Vincent store in George St.
The foodbank usually gave food parcels containing canned goods, packaged food, raw mince and pre-cooked sausages.
However, as a lot of children were recipients, there was a desire to provide them with a better meal.
Mr Jones said the society wanted to supply ``a higher-quality meal with protein and a lot more goodness in it''.
A team of corporate volunteers spent yesterday preparing 150 meals and did the same the previous Monday.
The project came together with the help of Cadbury, which donated six staff members for two Mondays to help cook the meals.
The volunteers said they had enjoyed being involved.
``It's lovely coming in to do this. It's really nice,'' said Deborah Stuut.
Donna Moore said: ``I could do this every day.''
The two-week initiative had been popular.
``It's going really well; people love it,'' Mr Jones said.
The prepared meals were frozen and distributed with the regular food parcels. Recipients had a choice of cottage pie, chilli con carne or macaroni cheese.
St Vincent de Paul foodbank distributed around 80 food parcels a week.
It was hoped the 300 frozen meals would last at least a month.
``The end result is every time one of those trolleys go into the van, we know that somebody is going to get some good food out of it,'' Mr Jones said.
- by Fleur Mealing
