Dick Freezzell's cool new art

Leading Kiwi artist Dick Frizzell has created a cool new way of supporting his favourite charities - arty wraps for fridges.

Frizzell, co-founder of the best-selling Cooking 4 Change celebrity recipe book, has one of his grandkids to thank for the idea.

The Auckland-based artist has designed a fun wrap for the Haier multi-door fridge.

Ten of the novel appliances - aptly named "Freezzell fridges"- will be donated to charities including Paw Justice, Auckland City Mission, Starship Foundation and Leukaemia Blood Cancer NZ.

A nationwide search has been launched to find several other worthy charities and community groups who deserve one of the collector's edition fridges.

Frizzell was inspired to make a fun shopping list to decorate the appliances with after a chat with his youngest grandchild.

"I initially thought I'd be doing a little beer fridge with a simple laminate on the front," he said.

"I first had to ask my wife Judy how to do a shopping list, which is a bit of a disgrace seeing as I've been married for 50 years.

"But the whole thing grew arms and legs and suddenly I was creating something for a big unit with double doors.

"Then one of my grandkids started playing about with a shopping list I'd done on a blackboard and came up with some great ideas to lighten things up.

"Porridge was swapped out for things that kids prefer such as Coco Pops, and frozen peas was changed to tinned peas."

Frizzell said he has taken on more charity projects recently "just because I can".

Big Kiwi names such as Sam Neil, Taika Waititi, Valerie Adams and Stan Walker supplied recipes for his Cooking 4 Change project - and a follow-up book is in the pipeline.

"The cookbook has gone really well," Frizzell said. "It has been ticking along nicely and it is good to see it wasn't just a one-hit wonder, so more will be on the way."

fridge Dick Frizzell has decorated for the charity cooking for change. Photo / Supplied

Community groups and charities can nominate themselves to receive a Freezzell fridge or be nominated by their peers by heading to the Haier website www.haier.co.nz and completing the online nomination form.

From this, deserving charities or community groups will be selected by a small panel of Cooking 4 Change celebrity contributors. The public can also vote online to decide who they think is the most deserving to take away one of the fridges.

The winners will have their appliances delivered personally by Frizzell and/or a Cooking 4 Change celebrity contributor.