A celebrated Auckland master chef who spent some time as a teenager living in a Catholic presbytery is helping feed some of the city’s poorest kids.
Michael Meredith, 41, was named as the city’s outstanding chef by the Auckland hospitality industry earlier this year, the second time he was been given this accolade.
That is one of many awards over the years for the man who was the founder chef at The Grove, near St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Now he runs the celebrated Meredith’s restaurant in Mt Eden.
It is a long way from coming to New Zealand as a teenager from Samoa and being reunited with family members and living in the Catholic presbytery in Mt Albert.
At the time, he and his brother were among the poor of the parish.
“As a kid you don’t want to be called out in front of the church and [be seen to have] needed helped. I look back now and I laugh about it.
“But back then it was quite embarrassing, as a 13-year-old.
“And like any ethnic kid that comes into a European society, you’re not immediately accepted.”
Mr Meredith is a minor shareholder and a culinary advisor for “Eat My Lunch”, an enterprise aiming to feed as many underprivileged Auckland kids lunch a day as it can.
A New Zealand Herald feature article spelled out how it works.
Its formula is simple: it sells and delivers lunches to those who can afford them so that it can make and deliver lunches to some of the poorest kids in Auckland.
In its first 12 weeks, Eat My Lunch (EML) delivered more than 25,000 lunches to 16 schools, and was praised by Lorde on social media (she bought a 1000 lunches for others, spurring EML to launch its “Give Two” option).
Mr Meredith said the giving was a big drawcard for him.
He has kids himself, so he understands that being hungry at school is bad for learning.
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