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Donations are desperately needed to restock the local foodbank, which is critically short of many staple items at its busiest time of year.
Stocks at the Hibiscus Coast Community House foodbank frequently run low throughout the year, but manager Christine Alesbury can’t remember when it last happened so close to Christmas.
Several of the shelves that make up the little foodbank are completely empty, and Christine says while the freezer is reasonably well stocked, demand is exceeding supply.
A recent tinned food drive by Kingsway School filled the shelves but those supplies were quickly used up. What’s left would barely be enough for a dozen food parcels.
The foodbank gives out its parcels only on referral from agencies such as Parent Aid, Women’s Refuge and WINZ. The number of requests for general food parcels has increased slightly this year (from 381 to 385 so far); in addition, last year the foodbank provided local families with a record 92 Christmas food parcels.
“Although referrals are only just starting to come in for Christmas parcels, it looks as though we will be hard pressed to cater for the demand,” Christine says.
The rise in demand reflects an Auckland-wide trend. Auckland City Mission figures show that the demand for its emergency food parcels in the lead up to Christmas is on the rise, going from 1023 parcels in September and October 2013 to 1544 this year.
All the food items in the Community House’s foodbank in Orewa are donated, or funded by the organisation from its limited income that comes from grants, donations and sales at its Western Reserve Op Shop. Happy Kiwi café in Silverdale and Hollywood Café in Whangaparaoa are regular supporters.
There is a box for public donations of food items by the checkouts at Orewa New World and Christine says that the amount given has dropped, with the bin often filled with end of lines that the supermarket donates, rather than shoppers.
The items needed at the moment are quite specific and most are basic foods, not ‘treat’ items – things such as coffee, Milo, tinned fish, drink sachets, crackers and jam (see Wish List below).
The Community House is also holding a sausage sizzle and raffle outside The Warehouse in Silverdale on Friday, December 4, 10am–2pm. All the money raised will be used to buy items for its Christmas food parcels.
Donations of non-perishable food can be dropped in to the Community House, in Western Reserve, Orewa (behind Estuary Arts), 10am–3pm, until December 18.
Church hampers low
Another local organisation that helps families in need, Orewa Baptist Church, was struck a major blow with the cancellation of the You Can Help Festival.
The festival was due to follow on from the Santa Parade, and was expected to raise around $1000 to help fund the church’s Christmas food parcels.
Pastor Paul Collins says that cancelling the festival was absolutely the right call to make, bearing in mind the approaching storm.
The same thing happened in 2012 and back then it also left the church struggling to fill the 30–40 Christmas Hampers that it supplies to local families each year.
The hampers provide a mix of staple, non-perishable items and a banana box of non-perishable and Christmas treats. Items can be left in the church’s distinctive supermarket trolleys, decorated with tinsel, by the checkouts at Orewa New World as well as at the church in Centreway Rd, Orewa.
Donations can be accepted until December 20.
