There is nothing like healthy competition to motivate the masses, especially when it is for a good cause.
That is the thinking behind this year's Bay of Plenty Times Christmas Appeal business challenge.
Saturday marked the beginning of the six-week annual appeal, which aims to help the Tauranga Community Foodbank by raising awareness about the organisation, collecting food from members of the community and raising funds.
This year, businesses will be encouraged to collect as many non-perishable food items for the foodbank as possible and those efforts will be monitored, compared side-by-side and celebrated.
Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin said the challenge would make the appeal "all the more exciting" and was bound to generate more interest from the growing business community in Tauranga.
"If businesses are curious about where their donations go, if they wanted to come down and visit and have a tour of the foodbank to see what happens and how well we look after the donations, give me a call and make a time," she said.
On December 12, the Bay of Plenty Times and The Hits radio station host Will Johnston will be travelling around the city in a Bayhopper bus supplied by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and will be visiting all the competing businesses to collect the donations.
The "Fill the Bus" competition will be covered live on the day and there is a $500 food and beverage voucher from CBK - Craft Bar and Kitchen to award.
In the lead-up, Johnston will be pitting business against business on The Hits and said he might even cold call companies to apply pressure.
"There's a lot of competitive people in the Bay of Plenty and I like to think that banks compete against banks in this kind of thing, or law firms compete against law firms and accountants compete against accountants."
He said there is a growing corporate world in Tauranga and with that came more people who could probably afford a decent Christmas dinner.
"So here's an opportunity for you, in your workplace, to get a bunch of food together and give it to people who potentially wouldn't have Christmas lunch otherwise.
"It's a cool idea because you don't realise year-on-year how much the need grows in the Bay of Plenty for food and at Christmas that's compounded, right? It's when you have friends and family around and it's a time where everyone should actually have an opportunity to have a feed."
Johnston said he had no problem with making things a little bit awkward to motivate companies.
"If I know of a business who have got a heck of a lot of food that they're about to pass on, maybe I'll call their opposition."
Some of the businesses already getting involved in the appeal again this year are those in the 247 Cameron Rd building.
Collection organiser Michelle Senkus, of Cooney Lees Morgan, said they did it simply because they could.
"We have the resources, with so many people in our building, to make a difference," she said.
"We all need to support each other in times of difficulties - that's what makes a community. There are many people who at some point in their lives through no fault of their own need help with putting food on the table for a while.
"Tomorrow, that could be any one of us - it could be me. And the thought of someone going hungry at Christmas is unthinkable. If everyone just does a wee bit it makes a difference."
Senkus said the businesses in her building know from previous years that a bit of competition does make a difference in the overall amount collected.
"If making it a challenge encourages that competitive spirit in us to give just a bit more to beat the other businesses, and results in an extra 20 cans of spaghetti or an extra 10 packets of Weet-Bix - I am all for it.
"It's hugely rewarding seeing the foodbank van drive away on collection day full to the brim knowing we have done our bit to contribute."
This year it will be a bus hopefully jam-packed with generous food donations from Tauranga's business community.
The facts - The Tauranga Community Foodbank helped feed 16,429 people in the 12 months ended October 2017. - Of those people, 9362 were under the age of 18 and 7067 were over 18. - The foodbank issued 5459 food parcels in those 12 months - 15 per cent more than the same period last year.