During 2024, Risingholme Learning in Ōtautahi received ACE funding to develop a series of cooking workshops and practical sessions to build the teaching capabilities of tutors from the Share Kai Cook’s collective. Share Kai uses kai/food to bring people together and help remove barriers to participating in our society. It is a collaboration between InCommon, SEWN and former refugee women from countries like Afghanistan, Eritrea, Nepal and Bhutan. The group creates opportunities for their community to actively engage, learn from and make meaningful connections with those from different backgrounds.

The cooks at Share Kai are all migrant women who are already very competent cooks and who have a desire to build their knowledge and capability as cooking tutors to support them into a work pathway. Following the workshops, the group delivered a “Tastes from Around the World” cooking course for Risingholme with a focus on three ethnic cuisines.

Following this course, the tutors participated in a second round of workshops in the first term of 2025 to solidify their learning and gain further practical experience leading more cooking sessions. Over three weeks, they taught Share Kai volunteers and Risingholme tutors and staff to make traditional Nepalese momos (dumplings), Eritrean Doro Wat (Chicken Stew), and Ghormeh Sabzi (a herby meat stew from Afghanistan). The sessions ran like a traditional cooking class with tutor demonstrations followed by participants working in pairs at their stations to recreate them.

Many of the dishes included ingredients not typically used in Western cooking, like Berebere spice mix for the Doro Wat and a herby vegetable mix for the Gormeh Sabzi. The tutors explained potential swaps that could be made when ingredients were hard to source while remaining true to the cuisine. A highlight of the course was learning how to fold momos by hand, with the tutor walking learners through the simple but intricate technique.

At the completion of each session, the tutor and learners shared a meal together. The PD sessions have enabled several of the women to explore pathways to work, including Jamila (Afghan tutor), who has opened her own stall at one of the local markets where she shares her food and passion for cooking with the public.

Lynda Megson, Director at Risingholme, says the PD course has enhanced tutors’ learning experience. “In addition to the tutor training and mentorship programme, we were able to run three cooking classes at no cost to participants, and this allowed us to simulate a cooking class to enable the tutors to implement their prepared lesson plan. This was invaluable to their development as tutors, and we are proud to have been part of their learning journey with the support of ACE Aotearoa.”