Nine To Noon Eating out with a difference
Mar 22, 2026
Sarah Mills, co-founder of Seeds to Feed, runs community growing and harvest events. Jack Rainey, operations manager at Everybody Eats, runs pay-what-you-can meals from rescued ingredients. They chat about Te Aro Eats pop-ups, shared long-table seating to spark conversation, how rescued-food kitchens and volunteers operate, and the festival outreach that builds connection and accessibility.
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How Te Ara Eats Started And Scaled
- Te Ara Eats began as a collaboration of food-security groups to offer community meals on Cuba Duper using rescued and surplus food.
- Jack and partners scaled from a marquee to feeding 700–800 people last year by coordinating many organisations and kitchens.
Shared Tables Create Community Connections
- Shared long tables are used deliberately to mix strangers and spark conversation across diverse groups.
- The seating design encourages people to meet, share stories, and form unexpected community connections.
Coordinate Kitchens To Turn Surplus Food Into Meals
- Use existing kitchen capacity to process rescued food by heating, plating, and coordinating contributions from partner groups.
- Everybody Eats and partners bring surplus food to a shared kitchen for fast turnarounds feeding large groups.