Team Updates · Dec 18, 2020

Food is the theme this Christmas

For our CEO Paul Brown and his whanau, Christmas is about family, fun and of course ... food.

"We usually host Christmas lunch with our family – both Angela and I are from relatively small families so it makes sense that everyone comes to our place. We certainly can't say this recipe has been handed down through generations but we've been making it each Christmas Day for many years now and so it has sort of become ‘ours’.

Christmas Day can often mean too much rich food, so we like this festive salad recipe because it has fresh flavours and has lots of seasonal ingredients (keeping it easy and cheap to create). It’s great for brunch, lunch or dinner. It's festive colours and short preparation time (less than 10 minutes) make it perfect for Christmas".

Festive Salad

3 bunches of asparagus

2 punnets of strawberries

2 avocados

A sprig of mint

Balsamic vinaigrette (we use Paul Newman’s Own)

Snap the bottoms of the asparagus and put on a plate with a splash of water
Microwave the asparagus (we find 2 mins on high per bunch is just right to keep them crunchy) then once finished blanch by putting them under running water for a minute. Once cooled cut the asparagus into thirds.
Wash and quarter the strawberries
Dice the avocados into walnut size chunks
Put all the ingredients in a bowl, and if time permits put the salad in the fridge for 30 mins to cool
To serve, pour over vinaigrette and add some ripped mint leaves.

ChildFund and you

Health and nutrition is one of our key five focus areas. Hunger is the theme for Gifts that Grow this year and there is plenty you can do to help children.

Here's some of the ways you can this Christmas:

Food for a classroom of children

Emergency Food and Recovery Pack

Cooking courses for parents

How does it make a difference?

When kind and caring people like you buy a gift, for example, let’s say a supporter buys chickens from the catalogue then the money they donate for the gift is specially coded so that it goes into a pool of money specifically for buying chickens. The project area receives the money from us (thanks to you!) and uses it to purchase the chickens, cover vet fees and provide training to families on how to care for their chickens so that they can get the maximum benefit.

Children are why we exist.

Through the generosity of our supporters, we help children to access stronger, healthier futures and better outcomes through better access to the basics of: water and sanitation; health and nutrition; education; child protection and better livelihood opportunities for their families.

We work in six dedicated communities in the Pacific, Asia and Africa. We work with the communities through local partners to our unique Road Map plan to community development. Our Road Maps are a plan of strategic goals that have been identified, selected, implemented and monitored with the community. Having established, strong, trusted local relationships with partners, with whom we have a proven track record with, enables us to do this work. Our aim is that these communities become self-sufficient in providing the basics to their children so we can move on to help another community.

ChildFund New Zealand has been working to help children in need for over 30 years (we are part of an international ChildFund Alliance that has been helping children for over 80 years).

Please support Gifts that Grow today. Thank you so much!