Manna Kai shows we all still like the idea of a chat over dinner.

This reporter has attended two of the free dinners held late on Monday afternoons at the Ōpōtiki Baptist Community Church Hall. The meals have been provided weekly for just over two years, drawing an eclectic bunch to sample the ever-changing menu.

This Monday there was chicken, ham, fish, salad, macaroni and the dessert was lavish.

The previous week, arriving late, I helped myself to the last sausage sitting on the servery.

Manna Kai is always a moving feast. Just what the volunteers serve up depends on donations from Harvest and Maōri Methodist churches; food donations from local businesses and a group of women who make cakes and puddings.

Organised by locals Lydia and Dwayne Ashford, Manna Kai also receives food donations from The Lifeboat Community Trust, a food bank operating on the North Shore of Auckland.

“We just happen to have friends at Lifeboat, and they help us out,” Mr Ashford said.

“So, what we cook and serve our guests depends upon what comes in. We can’t predict how many will arrive for dinner, though there is usually plenty to go around.

“In any case, it’s more about us greeting and spending time with one another than what’s on the menu.”

Mrs Ashford agrees.

“I think sharing food with others is a universally understood language of love. We like meeting our friends and talking with them here – sharing food together is a bonus.”

The couple can trace their involvement to July 7, 2023, when they received “a vision” of helping people in terms spelled out in Isaiah 58:1-14. This passage speaks about setting the oppressed free and seeing to the needs of the hungry.

“If it wasn’t for feeling called this way, Dwayne and I would probably be at the beach surfing,” Mrs Ashford said.

“We feel it’s important to be here, we have a responsibility to help people spiritually as well as offering them a meal, because ‘man shall not live by bread alone’.

“We offer Bible-based discipleship; to enable everyone to learn the basics of what God has expected from mankind since the beginning.

“Love is the greatest gift; without it we are just clanging cymbals.”

This Monday, Harry Broughton said a short grace at the beginning of the meal. Conversations were as broad in scope as the varied backgrounds of the dinner guests.

On Monday, topics included media personalities past and present and the shocking price of groceries.

Some guests were regulars while others might attend once or twice and never be seen again.  

“All of us gathered here are under the love of God and He seems quite close by,” Mr Ashford said.

“We don’t feel the need to talk about God, unless somebody raises the topic. Anyway, God’s already here whether we talk about Him or not.”