Two for one for region's needy families

GOOD VIBES: The Vibe owner/manager Jon Samia invites customers to bring a can of food in exchange for a "two for one" meal deal - to make food parcels for needy families.

A Wairarapa children's charity and a well known Masterton bar are joining forces to help fight poverty in the region in the lead up to Christmas.

Starting this week, Chapel St eatery The Vibe, formerly Aberdeen Steakhouse and Bar, will be offering "two for one" meals for customers who arrive with cans of food, and other non-perishable food items.

All donations will be collected by the Kids Kai Time Charitable Trust and made into food parcels for needy families -- just in time for the holiday season.

Kids Kai Time chief executive Michelle Leslie said the restaurant ran a similar promotion in 2011, when she was working as general manager -- with food parcels going to the Masterton office for Child, Youth and Family (CYF), the Wairarapa Teen Parent Unit, and the Masterton Corps of the Salvation Army.

Ms Leslie, who started Kids Kai Time after offering breakfasts to children from low income families at the former Aberdeen, said the first food parcels initiative was well received by the community.

"It was pumping last time," she said.

"The place was chock-full of cans -- we needed about four guys from the CYF office to come and collect it.

"I'm excited to run it again; it will help a lot of people in the community."

Ms Leslie said the food items donated to The Vibe are for those families who struggle to approach a food bank -- and would feel more comfortable going via an agency.

"We know there are people struggling -- especially at this time of year, when there's so much pressure on everyone.

"But a lot of families are embarrassed about their situation, or too proud to go to the foodbank."

She also decided to support the Teen Parent Unit, as a past employee's daughter was a teenage mother -- and still has a card signed by all the students to thank her.

"I thought they could do with a hand -- they're young, they're mums, they're not going to have a lot of money.

"It's cool, because they get taught at the unit how to make up a meal from a food parcel.

"You can do a bit with pasta and sauce."

Ms Leslie said Kids Kai Time has received extra funding this year, which will be used to get ingredients for a Christmas dinner to add to the food parcels -- such as turkeys, roast chickens and "a bag of spuds".

New restaurant manager Jon Samia, who owns the premises with mother Lua, said he looked forward to working with Kids Kai Time.

"The two for one will be a good way to put bums on seats, but it also promotes Michelle's work.

"I love Michelle's go-getter attitude -- it's inspiring for me as a business owner."

Kids Kai Time also provides healthy lunches to low decile schools, runs children's cooking courses and greenhouse gardening programmes for schools in Porirua and South Auckland.

More information about The Vibe's two for one meals, and a menu, are available on its Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheVibeMasterton.