Cooney Lees Morgan's Kay George, (left) Michelle Senkus, Simon Beaton, Guy Withrington hand over huge food collection from all the businesses in the ANZ Building on Cameron Rd. Photo / George Novak
A Tauranga business block has rallied to bring in a massive haul for the Tauranga Community Foodbank.
Law firm Cooney Lees Morgan runs the annual drive in the ANZ building on Cameron Rd.
This will be put towards the Bay of Plenty Times annual six-week Christmas Appeal, in partnership with Gilmours Wholesale Food and Beverage Tauriko.
For about 15 years, Cooney Lees Morgan has been donating to the foodbank.
When the business moved to Cameron Rd, it invited other businesses to join in and the collection has grown from there.
This year, nine businesses from the ANZ building are involved: Bayleys Real Estate Tauranga, Elizabeth Café, Aurecon, Key Research, ANZ, KPMG, Baker Tilly Staples Rodway, Lifetime, and Cooney Lees Morgan.
Cooney Lees Morgan marketing administrator Kay George said the firm felt it was important to collect this year as more families had been affected by the pandemic and were asking for help.
Being a tourist destination, a busy port, and a predominant horticulture producing area left many in hardship.
"There are so many businesses, families, and individuals that have been hurt and are still struggling to recover," she said.
"Christmas is one time of the year that most people turn their thoughts to helping others."
Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin said the foodbank was filling with more donations every day, thanks to the love of the community.
"It's getting busy down here with food coming in and food going out, just the way it should be."
Total cash donations as of Friday were at $50,092.15, up on last years total at this time of $35,130.09. That included Cooney Lees Morgan donations.
The Christmas Appeal goal is to collect at least $120,000 for food in the coming year.
So far this year, about $120,000 has been spent on staple food items such as meat, eggs, milk, bread and canned food, which was about 30 per cent more than last year's $92,000.
Goodwin said as well as the shift in new clients they've seen needing the foodbank's support, they have also seen "lots of new faces, lots of new names" stepping up with donations.
On top of the money, more than 14,000 food items have been donated, up from roughly 6000 last year.
"The food collection from ANZ Building resulted in 1621 food items, which is even more than last year."
A disregard for authority could be why those attending court are thumbing their noses.