Ellerslie Event Centre has opened up the heart of its hospitality hub to support volunteers cooking for Heart Kids’ Meals with Heart Programme.
Meals with Heart provides meals to parents and caregivers of New Zealand charity, Heart Kids, while their children are staying in Starship Hospital receiving treatment. Heart Kids volunteer, Jan Malcolm, was joined in the EEC kitchen by volunteers from Equifax Group who prepared an impressive 120 portions of Spaghetti Bolognese.
Paul Wilcox, Chief Executive Officer of Ellerslie Event Centre (a former chef) was also on hand to offer some sage advice.
Ellerslie Event Centre, Executive Chef, Steve Barton, says; “While our kitchen is used to handling all manners of requests from canapes on racedays through to multi-cultural buffets for weddings, we always look forward to welcoming Heart Kids’ volunteers into our kitchen.”
Paul Wilcox says; “It was great to be able to jump in and assist the volunteers from Equifax Group with preparing meals for Heart Kids families in our EEC kitchen. As a former chef myself, I always love the opportunity to don an apron and lend a hand.
“Ellerslie Event Centre is focused on supporting and making a difference in our community and we are proud to be able to open up our facilities to support families and children doing it tough.”
Kate Figgins, CEO of Heart Kids, says; “With the help of our corporate supporters and volunteers, we are able to provide around 600 meals per year for our heart parents and caregivers.
“We are hugely thankful to Ellerslie Event Centre and Steve who regularly open up their kitchen so that we have the facilities to run our Meals with Heart Programme. This allows us to provide meals for families in what is often a challenging time in their lives.”
