Covid-19: Gourmet meals from cancelled Seafood conference to be donated

Friday, 20 August 2021

Dishes including crayfish, salmon and beef bourguignon will be distributed to people in need after Seafood NZ and the Rutherford Hotel donated food from their cancelled conference to Nelson's Kai Rescue programme.

Food for nearly 300 people at Seafood New Zealand’s national conference will not go to waste over lockdown, after being donated to those in need.

Dishes from lobster tails to King Salmon and beef bourguignon that were ready to be served at morning teas, afternoon teas, lunches and dinners throughout the course of the conference – will now be donated to Kai Rescue and distributed to throughout the community.

The two-day conference at the Rutherford Hotel in Nelson, with delegates coming from all over the country, was due to get underway on Thursday before being cancelled after the announcement of the alert level 4 lockdown.

Seafood New Zealand chief executive Jeremy Helson said while he was deeply disappointed the conference could not go ahead, the decision was the right thing to do.

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Anton Drazevic of the Nelson Environment Centre packs food, donated by Seafood NZ and the Rutherford Hotel from their cancelled conference at the hotel, to Kai Rescue.

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“An enormous amount of work has gone into this conference and I would like to thank the staff involved.

“I would also like to thank both the Nelson Regional Development Agency and, particularly, Rutherford Hotel Nelson for collaborating to make sure none of this kaimoana and other valuable food goes to waste. Without their work, the mammoth effort of redistribution would not have been possible.”

Nelson Regional Development Agency business events coordinator Tracee Neilson said once it became clear the conference was not able to go ahead, there had been a scramble to figure out what they would do with the food – which included “loads of king salmon and lobster”.

Rutherford Hotel sous chef Yamal Bauer helps package food from the cancelled Seafood NZ conference for donation to Kai Rescue.

“It’s about making the best out of a bad situation and supporting those in need.

The food from the conference will be distributed to those in need in Nelson by Kai Rescue.

“In this case we’re hoping the lockdown is only for a short time, but with the vast quantity of food we can't have wastage, and we wanted to support the community.”

Rutherford Hotel Nelson general manager Alexander Siebentritt said on Thursday staff had been busy collating the different items and packaging them ready for delivery on Friday.

Siebentritt said while they had been able to cancel some orders at the last minute, much of the food had already been prepared and was ready to go.

He said some of the food had also been used to serve guests at the Rutherford Hotel, who had stayed on while flights were arranged to get them home.

The Kai Rescue programme partners with more than 60 food recipient organisations from the Nelson Tasman region who distribute food to individuals and families in need.

Kai Rescue coordinator Karen Brewer said the food from the conference would be going to groups in Nelson like the Male Room, Victory Community Centre, and other groups from women’s centres to addiction services.

Some food could also be frozen and made available to other groups who weren’t able to get up and running until the region was out of alert level 4.

She said if the lockdown continued it was likely other organisations would need to offload some of their perishable food supplies.

“It happened in the last lockdown, those ad hoc donations.

“We’re still picking up from our regular donors. Rutherford is obviously the big one this time around, if it continues we will likely hear from other people as well.”

Helson says he also wanted to thank the seafood companies who agreed the kaimoana should be redistributed to those who would benefit from it.

“These are difficult times, and some in the community are having a more difficult time than others. If this puts a smile on a few faces, we will be happy.”