Pomegranate Kitchen Lets You Eat Well and Do Good

Food is a universal language. Perhaps no Wellington business epitomises this better than Pomegranate Kitchen. It's a catering company that works with refugee chefs to create authentic, quality food. The brainchild of Rebecca Stewart and Ange Wither, both Wellingtonians with backgrounds in not-for-profits, organisational learning and development, Pomegranate is a social enterprise company, meaning they're a registered charity but operate like a business, and profits are returned to the company. Through their work, refugee cooks and chefs can find work in their new country, learn the language, and be part of a community. Rebecca came up with the idea when she was working with the Red Cross.

Pomegranate Kitchen have also recently been named one of four Wellington food businesses in the Good Food Boost program, run by the Sustainable Business Network and brought to Wellington by the Wellington City Council in partnership with WREDA. It's an opportunity to be mentored by city greats such as Shepherd Elliott (co-owner of Ti Kouka café, co-founder of Leeds Street Bakery, and founder of Shepherd restaurant), Kathryn Robinson (The Assignment Group), Teva Stewart (CommonSense Organics), and Richard Shirtcliffe (Coffee Supreme). They also get one-on-one business mentoring with WREDA. Pomegranate was selected because they're an innovative, sustainable and culturally-connected business, while being ethical and using locally sourced produce.

The menu Pomegranate Kitchen has varies according to what you need. The menus cater for every conceivable taste or dietary need — for example, their full dinner chicken option has chicken rice, fattoush salad, falafel, kuku sabzi (a delicious sort of spinach pie from Syria) and baklava for dessert. You can order a delicious kofta red rice, falafel wraps and some pretty amazing tahini cookies. We're hanging out for a cookbook, but in the meantime you can order catering from their website here.