Our team at Recreate NZ, along with our community of young people with disabilities, are thrilled to be supported by the Jenkins Foundation in 2025. Through this generous support, we have been able to fully renovate the kitchen space at our head office in Ellerslie, Auckland.
This has enabled the launch of our new Garden to Plate educational course and provided a home base for our Our Harvest product-making groups and community social events. Previously, we were required to run our kitchen-based programmes off-site in a hired venue, but we can now host everything we need right here at Recreate NZ.
This brand-new kitchen builds on the progress we made earlier in 2025, when we transformed our outdoor space from an agapanthus jungle into a functional green area for our community. This included new decking for a breakout space and three raised garden beds to support our Garden to Plate course.
Alex Saunders, Programme Facilitator for Garden to Plate, is thrilled with the new kitchen and its possibilities...
“I love the new kitchen! It is a lot more open and accessible for our Garden to Plate group to use. We don’t have to spend money on a community kitchen or travel there anymore, which is so handy. I enjoy seeing a meal be created from start to finish. We grow vegetables, harvest them, and create nutritious and delicious kai.”
Our participants have also enjoyed having a fit-for-purpose kitchen they can take pride in. Paul, a Garden to Plate participant, shared...
“I like it because it has a new layout and we don’t have to use the kitchen at the old space anymore. I enjoy learning about picking vegetables from the garden and using them to make recipes.”
Nicholas, another participant, added...
“The new kitchen is fabulous and outstanding. It’s the perfect spot for making homemade meals, and the outdoor space reminds me of the botanical gardens.”
The kitchen and gardens were officially opened on Friday, 10 October 2025, with a special community evening for our young people, their families, and supporters within the Recreate NZ network. Alex Snedden, a Recreate NZ member and member of the Catholic Church, gave a blessing over the new facility. This was followed by Greg Fleming, local MP for Maungakiekie, who shared a karakia with the intention of peace for this space.
We don’t often have the opportunity to open our building to parents, families, and wider community members, which made this evening especially meaningful.
We are hugely grateful to The Jenkins Foundation for partnering with us and supporting our purpose of providing life-changing experiences for young people with disabilities.