Regular shoppers at the Newtown fruit and veg market will notice a new stall this weekend – cakes. They’re baked by a group of locals who are fundraising to start a South Wellington branch of Bellyful – the national nonprofit organisation of volunteers who cook and deliver meals to new mums and families in crisis. 

The cakes aren’t for the babies, reassures Jo Peden, one of the volunteer organisers. The group of ten women are hoping to sell about $2,000 worth of homemade cakes to fund further purchasing of ingredients to cook wholesome meals for mums who are too busy feeding their newborns to properly feed themselves. 

Bellyful already exists in Karori, Hutt Valley, and Porirua, as well as 13 other locations around New Zealand, and these women think Wellington needs one, too. People can help by fundraising, cooking, buying ingredients, doing deliveries – and buying a cake on Saturday. 

Peden loves cooking, but says being involved is “a community building thing.” The mother of three children, the youngest age 5, she says, “You look back and think they are crazy times when you have a newborn baby. Making and delivering a home-cooked meal is something churches might have done in the past, but that probably doesn’t happen as much anymore. It’s a way we more secular women can link in and give time and support to the community.”