The cafe offering free food
One Wellington vegan cafe is handing out dozens of free meals every day.
Kris Bartley, founder of Sweet Release Cakes and Treats in the city centre, has set up a meal sponsorship programme for anyone in need of a free lunch.
Bartley said she was worried that there would be people who would start going hungry due to redundancies and financial struggles, caused by Covid-19. ‘‘I thought about what I could do to ease these anxieties. I always wanted to do a ‘pay it forward’ meal option. But over lockdown, I had a lot of time to think about it and decided it was the right time,’’ she said.
On the first day of level 3 the cafe reopened and began offering free meals to anyone who needed one.
The ‘‘pay it forward’’ meal programme has two parts. Customers can go into the cafe or on to the Sweet Release website and pay an extra $10 to sponsor a meal. Anyone in need can then come to the shop, take a meal voucher from the wall and use that instead of cash.
Staff updated a board in the window each morning with the number of sponsored meals available for the day. On average, 69 sponsored meals were dished out each day, Bartley said.
But there were often more than 80 sponsored meals available. ‘‘If you want a free meal, just come to the store, take a voucher from the wall and use that to pay for your meal. No questions asked,’’ Bartley said. ‘‘I don’t want people to feel awkward about it.’’
The free meals can be anything from the menu up to $15.
Corporate sponsors, including Love Welly and Shoots Microgreens, had begun to support the initiative as well, she said.
Bartley had donated surplus sponsored meals to community groups. ‘‘Last month, we reached over 100 sponsored meals in one day, so we gave 50 meals to Kaibosh Food Rescue,’’ she said.
The plan was to continue the programme long-term. ‘‘I get such nice messages from people who have used the meals. They are so thankful,’’ she said.
Bartley wasn’t concerned about the risk of people abusing the system. ‘‘It’s not a matter of them taking advantage. This is where they are at in their lives. I know those people, when they are in the position to, they will be on the other side of it and sponsor meals for others.’’
Some people have sponsored multiple meals. ‘‘Once, someone sponsored 44 meals in one go. They doubled our number of available meals in one day.’’
Bartley said she hoped the meal sponsorship programme helped people feel like they were making a difference.
‘‘A lot of people feel helpless at the moment. So we are the middle guy for our community to do something, to help others,’’ she said.