During the 2020 lockdown, the Soup Kitchen distributed an average of 153 takeaway meals per day.

This year the number of takeaway meals began at 190 and by Monday it had risen to 235.

Soup Kitchen manager Gary Sutton says that in 2020 he estimated that about 200 was the maximum number of meals they could manage.

He has added additional staff to meet the 2021 increased need.

Sutton said he is very grateful for the support of the Wellington City Council.

"So far they have restocked our PPE and remain ready to provide all our needs in this regard. This includes protective coveralls, disposable gloves and face masks; anything we need.

"The council arranged for the awning to be put up to protect the whanau from the weather when they pick up their takeaway meal.

"They did this on Day 3 of lockdown not even waiting for the government to announce the extension!"

The council have also tried, not so successfully, to source takeaway food containers, spoons, forks and paper bags.

"They sourced some items, burger boxes for example, but had trouble sourcing other containers so we have ordered from our usual suppliers and should get additional stock in a few days," said Sutton.

He said their relationship with other partner organisations has also been strengthened during this time, particularly with Wellington City Mission, Wellington Homeless Women's Trust, another women's refuge as well as a marae in Lower Hutt.

"I receive calls regularly from senior Wellington City Mission management thanking us for providing them with 45 hot meals we provide daily for the whanau staying at Te Paapori.

"They also offer to assist us in any way they can during this time."

"Your support especially at this time, is much appreciated," said Sutton

"There is no need for anyone to go hungry."

Source

• Supplied

It's an old folk tale about a couple of hungry travelers who creatively entice hesitant villagers to fill their large cooking pot with delicious soup ingredients.

After the initial refusal of the villagers to feed the hungry travelers, the two men fill their pot with stream water, light a fire under it, and then add a large stone to the water.

A curious villager asks what the men are doing. The travelers tell her they are cooking delicious stone soup, and that they would be happy to share it, except that it has not reached its full potential yet. They explain to each inquiring villager that with just a few spices and some vegetables the soup will be ready.

So, desiring to enjoy the delicious stone soup, one by one each villager is happy to give up a vegetable and a smidgen of spice.

After cooking is complete, the stone is removed, and all of the gathered villagers, along with the travelers, enjoy together a wonderful helping of stone soup.

This delightful moral tale teaches that when we share what we have with those who have little or nothing, there is indeed enough good food, and other basic necessities, to go around for everyone. And that the act of sharing has the potential to bring us together as a village and even as a global community.

But in the village of Riimenze, in South Sudan, stone soup is not a charming moral tale, it is a tragic reality!

In a very sad and compelling video posted at Sudan Relief Fund's website, Catholic Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of the Diocese of Tombura-Yambio in South Sudan, explains that with civil war violence showing no end in sight, his greatest challenge is to somehow supply food and clean water to several thousand internally displaced persons who have very little, and in many cases, absolutely nothing.

He says, "Many children are sick, and barely have anything, sometimes nothing to eat. In an attempt to appease their children, some mothers will collect stones and put them into a pot of boiling water, in hopes that their children will be convinced that it is food that is being cooked".

Please watch Bishop Kussala's video message, and then kindly consider making a donatio.

• I'm not in the Te Tai Tokerau electorate.
• I'm not Maori.
• I have no particular affinity towards Hone Harawira nor necessarily agree with most of what he says.

Hone Harawira however was a strong voice for the disadvantaged, particularly the poor.

His "Feed the Kids" campaign was a tangible example of his concern. Even during the election he protested very strongly to his own party, Internet Mana, at their plans to promote cannabis law reform at the expense of feeding kids.

"Why am I seeing all this shit about weed and so ……. little about feed," Hone Harawira wrote, rather ironically, in a leaked email. (But I digress.)

The Internet-Mana party quickly scrapped the cannabis policy.

Such is his passion, that in my view, the absence of Hone Harawira's voice will make the Parliament less representative and potentially the country less aware of some pressing social concerns.

The likelihood of Hone Harawira being part of any shade of government coalition was always going to be slim.

However it was from opposition that Hone Harawira's "Feed the Kids Bill" received the support of 70% of New Zealanders and got the Prime Minister to do something about supporting food in schools.

There is no excuse for even 2,000 New Zealand children to be living in poverty. That there are more than 200,000 New Zealand children living in severe poverty is a disgrace.

Let's face it, the Internet-Mana party is probably more a "flashmob" than a long-term political party, it may last for an even shorter time than the most optimistic pundits allowed.

I think it's sad, Hone Harawira, a champion voice for the disadvantaged will no longer be heard in our Parliament, however that's the system.

Hone Harawira's voice was credible when he spoke up for the poor, however he came unstuck; trading his credibility for the promise of money.

We are only as good as the friends we choose, or as The Beatles put it 50 years ago, "Money can't buy me love".

Fighting Child Poverty

In early August, more than 1,000 people packed St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Wellington for a Catholic and Anglican initiative to hear politicians address child poverty.

The meeting expressed concern about low incomes, gambling, alcohol, inadequate housing and debt. Archbishop Dew called on all politicians to make child poverty their top priority.

Archbishop Dew also said that child poverty is not just something for politicians to fix but something for the whole community to do something about.

True enough.

There are many ways to fight child poverty and they don't always just involve the Government opening the tax payers' wallet. But without the constant reminders from the likes of Hone Harawira, who will focus us to do something about it?

As they say, you can tell a lot about a society from the way it treats its most vulnerable.

- John Murphy is a Marist priest working in digital media at the Marist Internet Ministry, New Zealand.