Donated treats fill Coast’s Christmas parcels

A source of food items that are ideal for Christmas parcels has been a wonderful windfall for the Hibiscus Coast Community House.

Boxes of items such as potato chips, soft drink and sweets will now be coming in regularly to the Community House’s foodbank courtesy of the Auckland City Mission in what manager Christine Alesbury says is a much appreciated collaborative effort between the two organisations.

Last month Christine was in touch with a representative of the Auckland City Mission, who has since visited the Community House and added it to the list of Food Link charities.

This means that the Community House can collect food donations from the City Mission twice a month to top up its supplies – the bulk of which are sourced from donations by local residents.

Christine says because the City Mission deals direct with wholesale suppliers, many of the items are not staples, but “treats” that until now have been hard to come by.

This month more than 70 Christmas parcels will be distributed to those in need on the Hibiscus Coast; last year 58 Christmas parcels were distributed.

Overall this year the Community House has distributed more than 400 of its standard food parcels, which is 100 more than last year.

Image: Christine Alesbury (left) and Tessa Lane pack Christmas food parcels at the Hibiscus Coast Community House.