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The Hibiscus Coast community dug deeper than ever this Christmas, generously donating to local people in need.
The large amount given to Hibiscus Matters’ Buy Local Give Local campaign has been appreciated all the more because of the short timeframe for collecting the items – just three weeks – and the difficult time faced by many this Christmas.
Hibiscus Matters has run the campaign since Christmas, 2013. It aims to support local businesses while putting smiles on people’s faces and food on their Christmas table. This year we asked the community to bring in treats and staple foods, as well as vouchers purchased from local businesses.
Everything donated goes to local people who are struggling this year, via three local organisations – the Hibiscus Coast Community House’s foodbank and Whangaparāoa Police, for their Christmas parcels, and to Love Soup for its free Christmas meal and festive hampers.
All the items requested by those groups in our November 22 paper – and much more – soon began rolling in by the box and bag load. It was by far the biggest donation of food in the eight years that the collection has been running.
Vouchers valued at $450, including supermarket, petrol and café vouchers, were also received as well as a gift voucher for a one-hour free massage from Ōrewa Massage Worx. Special thanks goes to the members of Ōrewa Bridge Club for donating the proceeds of their Christmas collection.
One of the biggest community supporters was Whangaparāoa School, which collected several supermarket trolley and box loads of food from its school families. Teacher Lenora Skinner said the initiative was managed by the Year 5/6 children from O1 class.
“We chose to do the collection instead of having Secret Santa gifts in our classroom this year,” Lenora said.
Families dropped off donations at the school over four days and the students of O1 class sorted and packed it all.
“They needed no encouragement,” Lenora said. “They were very excited and enthusiastic about doing this for our community.”
Meanwhile, items continued to flow into Hibiscus Matters’ Ōrewa office. One woman who dropped off several vouchers as well as bags of food said she has lived in the area for 19 years and this is the first time she has made a donation like this at Christmas.
“This year I feel people really need it,” she said.
All the items were handed to the three organisations on December 14 and 15.
Love Soup’s Julie King says the treat foods donated were ideal for the free hangi picnic they had on December 19 instead of an indoor Christmas meal. They also received petrol vouchers to help their volunteers who deliver food.
Christine Alesbury of the Community House in Ōrewa says the donations will help fill more than 60 Christmas parcels with treat foods. The staple foods and supermarket vouchers will go on the foodbank’s shelves, which she says were virtually empty before these donations came in.
Whangaparāoa Police thanks the community for their generosity. Station support officer Charlotte Jones says the donors won’t realise the full impact of their kindness that will see parents reduced to tears, and squeals of excitement from children when Police deliver the parcels this week.
“The recipients have often had tragedy in their lives and this gesture shows that someone cares and leaves a real imprint on their hearts,” she says.
Hibiscus Matters would also like to sincerely thank everyone who made a donation, of any size.
We believe that the overwhelming response this year demonstrates how people can pull together more than ever to help others in stressful and difficult times.
And that is a positive thought to take into the New Year.
