Charity boxing funds Koha Kai’s mobile kitchen
Construction of Koha Kai’s mobile kitchen and installation of cooking appliances is near completion.
Koha Kai trainers and employees will test out the cooking facility on January 11, with the kitchen’s official opening to be held on the Gala St reserve on January 26.
The organisation was the recipient of money raised at the charity boxing event, Fight for Kids, in Invercargill in April.
With the funding, Koha Kai founder and project leader Janice Lee was able to arrange for TKO Engineering and Fabrication to build the mobile kitchen for about $100,000.
‘‘It’s going to be awesome,’’ Lee said.
‘‘It’s purpose built and will meet all our needs.’’
Koha Kai teaches people with disabilities the many ways food can be cooked, presentation of meals and offers advice on growing vegetables. A lot of the vegetables used in the meals were grown in Koha Kai gardens.
‘‘We teach skills that take people through to employment [opportunities],’’ Lee said.
The mobile kitchen would be taken throughout Southland for training programmes.
It had no servery area but a marquee would be set up close by to store the cooked food.
Lee and engineer Dean Giddens had worked together on the kitchen’s design.
‘‘Janice came up with a rough design and between her and I we have come up with this,’’ Giddens said.
The kitchen was 8 metres long,2.5 metres wide and just over 2 metres high inside.
A petrol generator had been fitted and cooking appliances and other requirements including a display cabinet, warming draws (two), ovens (two) and chillers (two), fridge-freeze, coffee machine and microwave are in the process of being installed. The finished kitchen would weigh about two and a half tonnes.
An electrician and plumber had worked on the Koha Kai kitchen at discounted rates. Lee said a fourwheel-drive towing vehicle would been needed and she had hopes of getting a good deal from a car dealer.