Auckland City Mission Cook-Off 2022

The amazing work of the City Mission inspires us, it’s part of our community engagement, and we wish to support them by raising awareness and heaps of money. I was lucky enough to represent Alsco and be part of the Cook-Off this year – the fourth person from our business to take part. The Cook-Off brings together business leaders and top chefs to give back to our community through a special evening of good food and good company. On 9th June we all put our culinary skills to the test by cooking a three-course meal for 200 City Mission guests, under the expert guidance of some of Auckland’s top chefs. We were tasked with not only cooking a delicious, nutritious meals for people who otherwise couldn’t afford it, but raising $10,000 each for the Mission’s work to support Auckland’s most vulnerable people.

This year the work is more important than ever. Because of Covid, many more Aucklanders have been turning to the Mission for support through this time of crisis. One in five Auckland families are now struggling to put food on the table and demand for the Mission’s emergency food parcels has more than doubled to over 1000 food parcels every week.

The event was again staged at the magnificent St Matthews-in-the-City Church, which has been the Auckland home for the City Mission for over 100 years. We all looked the part, kitted out by Deane Apparel in the latest Cutting Edge chef wear. We had some wonderful feedback about the meal from the guests, who really felt like VIPs at the event.

The event was a huge success, raising more than $240,000 to support the Mission’s work for Auckland’s most vulnerable people. All this money will help provide emergency food parcels for people who would otherwise go hungry at this difficult time.