Knead to Belong: Connecting Through Pizza Making / Tapawera Connect

Mental Health Awareness Week is recognised in more than 150 countries worldwide and the Mental Health Foundation has been running this event in New Zealand since 1993. Every year there is a different theme to keep the campaign fresh, relevant and aligned with the latest research.

As Mental Health Awareness Week approached, we found out the theme this year is Belonging Matters. But what does that look like? Sometimes all it takes are a few small actions - catching up with someone you haven’t spoken to for a while, helping an elderly neighbour, or even saying hello when passing someone on the street. Research shows that a strong sense of belonging is closely linked to better mental health outcomes, and we all deserve to feel like we belong.

After the success of last year’s shoe decorating session, we thought about what we could do for fun this year, and after a bit of brain-storming we came up with ‘Knead to Belong’.

The idea was to get together, learn about making pizzas and enjoy ourselves in the process. We had fun tossing the pizza dough in the air, adding our favourite toppings, and sitting down afterwards and having a chat over our creations. We had 13 lovely people of all ages – from children right through to ladies from our seniors’ events, and it was really nice to sit down together and get to know others in the community.

We would like to give a huge thanks to Aaron and Julie, who hosted our group at Pizza Plus. Aaron was brilliant at showing us the finer points of pizza making, while Julie did a fantastic job of cooking our pizzas to perfection.

Most importantly, we believe we achieved what we set out to do – bringing people together, having a few laughs, sharing good food, and having a space where everyone could feel welcome and included.

Sometime belonging can be as simple as sitting around the table, sharing a meal, and having a yarn. And that’s exactly what ‘Knead to Belong’ was all about.