1000 meals for Rotorua’s needy
Restaurant owner’s gift: ‘If you can help someone, then why not?’
‘If you can help someone, then why not?” This is the lesson owner and chef of Giovanni’s restaurant, Deep Kumar, learnt from his late father — a lesson that has inspired him to donate 1000 meals to communities in need this month.
Kumar lost his 61-year-old father, Avtar Singh, to liver cancer in May last year.
“He passed away during the Covid lockdown so we couldn’t say goodbye to him,” Kumar told the Rotorua Daily Post.
Kumar’s family found out around February about his father’s illness and made plans for Singh to spend his last months in New Zealand.
But the global pandemic meant the reunion wasn’t possible.
Kumar remembered Singh as a “community contributor” and said his father taught him to build himself, then to build others.
“As kids, we always saw him helping people and that’s something we’ve always done as a family. We want to continue doing that, however we can.”
One year later, on the first anniversary of Singh’s passing, Kumar’s grandmother Barfo Devi passed away at the age of 106.
Devi had lived through the 1918 influenza pandemic, and seen the effects of Covid-19 in her hometown in India.
“Until last week she was still walking,” Kumar said.
“She’d seen everything.
It was a
very long journey for her. She’s just been tremendous, always working hard.”
Kumar said his grandmother could still be found working on the farm at 90 years old. She never ate in restaurants.
“It was important to her to always cook fresh.”
Kumar’s donation of food to Rotorua Whakaora this month honours his two family heroes.
Last Saturday, Kumar and a group of family and friends gathered in Giovanni’s kitchen from 7am to cook and package 500 boxes of spaghetti and meatballs, ragout and fusilli pasta with marinara sauce as a vegetarian option.
“My food has to be served fresh,” Kumar said.
“So I asked Rotorua Whakaora how many people they served in a day.
“I said I will give you what you need and you can distribute it.”
Rotorua Whakaora is a food rescue and community group that distributes food to people in need across South Waikato and the Bay of Plenty.
They operate distribution centres in Rotorua, Mamaku, Murupara, Little Waihi, and Maketu¯, to name a few.
Their Rotorua locations can serve more than 100 people per day.
Kumar has been involved with
Rotorua Whakaora years now.
Last year he donated 850 meals in memory of his father.
Rotorua Whakaora general manager and co-founder Elmer Peiffer said he was told about the plan to donate 1000 meals in March 2021.
“It blew our minds,” Peiffer said. “We were over the moon that Deep
for
about
four
would want to look after the Rotorua community like that.”
Later this week, Kumar and his team will be back in the kitchen preparing another 500 meals for distribution. This time, Kumar plans to serve risotto.
“We know it’s not about choice,” Kumar said.
“Some people can’t afford restaurant-quality food, so why not?”
Kumar doesn’t see why he should