Helping to f ill families’ bellies
Bellyful is hoping to help more families struggling to cope with newborns, or young families who have a child or parent with a serious illness through a new branch in northern Wellington.
Mayor Justin Lester, himself a parent of young children and who lives in Johnsonville, will welcome 30 volunteers to a ‘‘cookathon’’ at Newlands Intermediate tomorrow where meals will be cooked and then frozen.
They will be delivered to families in Johnsonville, Newlands, and Churton Park over the next month.
Bellyful started nine years ago, and this month celebrated delivering 100,000 meals throughout New Zealand.
Chief executive Charlotte Delahunty has been involved with the charity for two years. ‘‘I’ve loved every minute of it,’’ she said. Nationwide, there were 550 volunteers, and two part-time staff – she is one of them.
Bellyful had been delivering meals in Wellington for seven years and the Wellington North branch would be the 22nd branch nationwide.
In Wellington, it had branches covering the southern and eastern suburbs, city, western hills, and Hutt Valley and now north Wellington. The meals are cooked in kitchens provided for free by churches and commercial organisations.
Bellyful supplies meals to qualifying families, to feed them for three nights. They are referred by healthcare professionals, family and friends, or contact the organisation themselves.
Delahunty said there was roughly an even split of referral methods, and that often those who contacted the organisation themselves were in the worst strife.
‘‘It takes a lot of courage to ask for help, and so often those people who self refer are in quite difficult situations,’’ she said. ‘‘Because they don’t have to go through a health professional, it removes some of those barriers to asking for help.
‘‘They can just say ‘I meet your criteria, and I need help’,’’
Volunteer Sarah Urquart will co-ordinate the new branch.