Students may have noticed a new food truck operating out of the Museum Llawn, staffed with broad smiles and piling $5 Love Feasts onto plates. Jane Beecroft caught up with Critic Te Ārohi to discuss the mahi behind Krisha Kai, as well as the menu. “Samosas, smoothies, hot chips, apple crumble, and much more,” she tells Critic. Nothing is over $5! Krishna Kai will be out on the Museum lawn on Wednesdays and Fridays 12-4pm, and they come highly recommended. Critic had a bit of a sore throat at the time of interviewing, so Jane offered to make them a fresh apple, ginger and mint juice – which literally healed them. No joke. Those juices are not messing around.
Jane, previously known as the ‘lunch lady’ (though that name is applicable again now), was the heart and mind behind $4 lunch for over 20 years up until early 2022, when she announced her retirement. She’d served over half a million students. By that point, she’d totally “[fallen] in love” with the students, having many great conversations about healthy eating and lifestyles and creating a discussion group called “Life, The Universe, And Everything”. After the discussion group, they’d all have soup and bread, which marked the beginning of soup Wednesdays. “What I saw was people really craving for connection,” she explains, something that drives the community feel that OUSA lunches still have today. “It was a place where everyone could come together,” she reflects. “Like a family – international students, friends, just catch up. That place was buzzing, you could feel it from the footpath [...] It was home for many people.” It’s something more than just healthy kai – that’s at the core of Jane’s kaupapa, always.
Jane’s warm presence always made students feel comfortable, and she’d always make an effort to get to know everyone’s names, even if she didn't always remember them. “I’d just call them Smiley, Blossom, or Sunshine [...] I still meet people today on the street who say ‘Oh hey, you used to call me Sunshine!’ [...] It’s just lovely.” She tells Critic that she still keeps in touch with hundreds of students around the world – many of whom are now married with kids, far away from Scarfieville. “I don’t want anyone to feel like they’re alone in this world, or that they don’t have someone to talk to,” she explains. “I want students to know that’s what I’ll be again.”
Describing retirement as “boring”, Jane was encouraged by people in her community to keep the ball rolling and open up Krishna Kai, a more mobile way for her to continue her kaupapa of aroha-infused kai. “It would have been easy to sit back on my laurels and say ‘I’ve done my bit’,” she says – but that’s not what happened. Instead of leaving it to the next generation to pick up the mantle, she was inspired by the next generation – meeting people that also believed in her work, and who completely “revived” her to make sure Krishna Kai could fly.
Looking forward, Jane’s got big ideas for a broader Krishna Kai community. She’s envisioning food forests and community whares where people can go to “escape the madness”. She wants to teach people organic gardening and how to live healthy and whole lives – so keep an eye out.
