With almost 200k followers across social media platforms, Pāpāmoa’s Makaia Carr is one of New Zealand’s original influencers. What made her leave behind the job she’d been doing since 2012 and launch Kura Kai – a charity project encouraging Kiwis to cook free meals for teenagers in need?
KURA KAI WAS BORN DURING LOCKDOWN. WHAT SPARKED THE IDEA?
Seeing how many families were affected by it – losing jobs, struggling to pay bills, finding themselves in situations they had never thought possible. In March last year, one of my followers from Tauranga, Gemma, reached out to me. She was on the PTA for a primary school where they have this thing called Compassionate Freezer – free food for families in need. But due to the lockdown, they found it impossible to refill it. She asked if I could encourage my Bay of Plenty followers tohelp. In two days she had 80 new meals! It was really nice to see how a little post could do something so big and help so many families. It was such an easy and wonderful way to help whānau, school and kids. I spent about a month thinking how I could expand this idea and make it the new focus of my online platforms. That’s when Kura Kai was born.
With this initiative, we really wanted to focus on teenagers. It’s the most challenging age group for charities, as teenagers often feel embarrassed about needing help; they’re afraid to be seen as ‘not cool’. So, we raise money to put chest freezers into high schools. We dropped off our first freezer at Mana College in Porirua last May and now we’re in 30 high schools around the country. I use social media to reach out and build the community of volunteers – amazing women who have the time, love, energy and the resources to cook delicious family dinners like casseroles, lasagnas and curries. They buy their own ingredients and cook out of their own kitchens.
It’s so simple, so community-based, so grassroots. It’s beautiful! You see so much aroha coming from everybody involved.
I REMEMBER SEEING NEWS ABOUT TEENAGERS DROPPING OUT OF SCHOOL TO HELP THEIR FAMILIES WITH THE FINANCES DURING LOCKDOWN AND NOT COMING BACK TO FINISH THEIR STUDIES. HAVING MEALS SUPPLIED WOULD PROBABLY HELP THESE KIDS TO SOME EXTENT?
That’s actually one of the issues that was on my mind when starting Kura Kai. For many teenagers, high school is their last opportunity for a free education or any education at all. Not being able to go all the way through to Year 13 and having to leave early, purely because they needed to work to assist their family, is something I really wanted to help change. I’ve been there before myself, so if providing free meals would be one more reason they could stay at school longer that would make me really happy!
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’VE BEEN THERE BEFORE?
I’m the eldest of six girls and for the first 8-10 years of my childhood, life was pretty good. But then my parents divorced and our life just got turned on its head. My mum really, really struggled but she was also a very proud woman and found it hard to accept support from other people or organisations. We were living off food vouchers and had a strict budget. Most of us had jobs and I sometimes skipped school to be able to earn more money. There are still so many families living in similar situations who are not able to overcome the barrier to get the help they need and deserve.
YOU’RE REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT HELPING OTHERS. BUT IT MUST HAVE BEEN A HUGE TRANSITION FROM WHAT YOU USED TO DO ONLINE TO WHAT YOU POST AND TALK ABOUT NOW. HOW DID YOUR AUDIENCE REACT?
It was certainly a big change for my followers but it came very naturally to me. When I was an influencer, it was never truly organic for me; it was a job, a role. It was exciting in its own way and I’m happy I’ve helped so many good companies grow. But what I do now is probably what I was always supposed to do.
Around the time of the lockdown #BlackLivesMatter became a really big topic online. This hit home hugely for me. I thought – stuff it, I’m going to say what I really want to say. Now is the time to talk about racism and Māori issues in New Zealand. If people unfollow me because they only want to see me promoting healthy food and fitness, so be it. I can’t NOT talk about it!
That’s when I started being more myself online, showing who I really was. I wasn’t worried about that brand not liking my opinion, or this person not giving me the job. This issue is bigger than all of that! My passion lies in helping Māori in New Zealand and seeing how we can fix inequality and racial issues. I actually had a few different ideas of what I could do to help but Kura Kai felt so right in my heart and my audience responded to it really well. Whānau cooking for whānau, families cooking for families – it spoke to me and speaks to many people out there.
Last year was tough and game-changing for many people. You could choose to remain silent, speak up or sit on the fence. I chose to have a voice and talk about what I believed in and I think it opened the path to all these new projects.
IT FEELS LIKE MANY SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS HAVE BEEN RE-EVALUATING THE MESSAGE THEY’RE SENDING OUT AND BECOMING MORE CONSCIOUS ABOUT WHAT THEY DO. HAVE YOU ALSO NOTICED THE POSITIVE CHANGE?
Absolutely! The past year really rattled the cages. Lots of people have adapted or changed the ways they impact the world. It’s amazing to see so much more diversity online, more acceptance for different cultures. People are trying to be more socially responsible and are using their public profiles to help and encourage others to do the same. Women are realising that what they consume online has a huge impact on their mental health and self-confidence. Issues raised and audiences actively demanding better have forced influencers and brands to step up. What we’re seeing now is an incredible power shift from influencers holding too much power to audiences dictating what they want to see and how they want to see it. Followers have the power to question us, to speak up if they’re not happy with the way things are done. I think it’s great! It holds us – people with the big reach – to account. It brings standards and moderates the industry, which had gotten out of hand. For example, take the new ASA guidelines on having to identify advertisements on social media – it’s a good way to have more transparency online.
YOUR NEW CAREER WASN’T THE ONLY BIG LIFE CHANGE FOR YOU IN 2020. YOU ALSO MOVED FROM AUCKLAND TO TAURANGA. HOW DO YOU LIKE LIVING HERE?
I’m living a dream! Every morning I walk the dog along the beach. Every Wednesday I’m doing Level 4 Te Reo Māori. Having time and confidence to learn my language is the biggest self-love thing of the year for me! I also trialed
for a netball team and now play for Pāpāmoa Beach Club regularly. I haven’t played for five years after surgery on my knee. Playing sports again at 41, studying for the first time since high school, cooking for Kura Kai in my kitchen – oh my goodness, I feel like a new person! It was the perfect time for me, as a woman, as a mum, as someone in the middle of changing her career path so drastically, to transition into a slower, calmer pace of life that we have here.
