It’s an unusually warm and windless autumn morning in Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara. By midday, the regular Tuesday crew of volunteers start streaming into the commercial kitchen of LTD., an events space on Dixon St metres away from the Cuba St hospitality precinct.
Head chef El Robbins greets her kitchen prep volunteers with waves and hugs, then inspects the produce boxes lined up on the stainless-steel benchtops. She spots bruised and blemished plums, cracked hazelnuts, day-old unsold bagels, misshapen chillies, slit carrots and split ginger, spring onions with torn leaves. She checks the walk-in freezer and eyes the frozen salmon.
With her team, Robbins will transform these perfectly edible ingredients otherwise destined for landfill into tonight’s nutritious three-course set menu at Everybody Eats. Housed at LTD., the koha-based restaurant feeds people from all walks of life. Customers pay any amount they can – or nothing at all – for these dinners.
Beyond converting food waste into restaurant-quality meals, Everybody Eats fosters a place where people from different classes, cultures and circumstances engage and interact, cultivating an inclusive community that nourishes body and spirit.
Nick Loosley conceived the idea in 2015 while doing research for his master’s degree in green economics in the UK. He visited different projects there as well as in Spain, learning about ways to
