St Joseph and St Joachim (Otahuhu) parish priest Fr Martin Wu is hoping that he can bring his latest project, “Kai by Koha”, around the community this Christmas to spread a little cheer.
NZ Catholic caught up with Fr Wu at the “Gaudete, Advent and Christmas Carols”, a music ministry event to raise funds for the Auckland diocese Catholic Caring Foundation on November 30.
In his bright red jumper, Fr Wu stood beside his food stall at the side of the entrance to the event centre, serving out sloppy joes (an American beef sandwich) and hotdogs in exchange for koha that will go to the foundation.
“Since today is for Catholic Caring Foundation, the mandate of the foundation is to help the lost, the least and the last, we’ll just share food and people can pay whatever they want,” he said.
Fr Wu said that he’s been quietly doing this for a few months already.
He said the project was inspired by Jesus, in Matthew’s Gospel, saying “when I was hungry, you gave me food” (Matthew 25:35).
“I think that’s how we’ve got do it. There are people who may not be able to afford meals. What we should do is we should just go out and feed people,” he said.
He said that this could also be a response to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’.
“Part of this is rescuing food that would normally go to waste. So, we are upcycling the stuff,” he said. “I’ve got this dumpling machine, and you know all these vegetables that don’t make grade one and would actually go to waste, you can actually use them to make dumplings. It’s perfectly fine because inside people can’t see the filling,” he said.
Fr Wu said he hopes to ramp this project up in the coming year.
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