Christmas Appeal week one: Tauranga Community Foodbank sees donations flowing in

Name: Bay of Plenty Times Christmas Appeal
Uploaded: 2023-11-14T10:00:00+13:00
Duration: 89 s
Description: Demand has never been higher for Tauranga Community Foodbank.

By Cira Olivier

Multimedia Journalist, Bay of Plenty Times·Bay of Plenty Times·

17 Nov, 2023 03:00 PM3 mins to read

Demand has never been higher for Tauranga Community Foodbank.

Despite the cost-of-living crisis, the Tauranga community is digging deep, donating thousands to the foodbank in the first week, with more planning to give back.

The Bay of Plenty Times’ annual six-week Christmas Appeal for the Tauranga Community Foodbank launched a week ago.

As of 8am yesterday, the foodbank has received a total of $9047.50. This breaks down to $7670 in cash donations and 551 food items, with each each item valued at $2.50.

This is just slightly behind the same time last year, where a total of $10,515 had been donated through $9105 cash donations and 564 food items.

Last year’s appeal resulted in $256,471 being donated - $167,758.84 in cash and $88,712 in food donations, with each item valued at $2.50. It was the highest total raised in the appeal’s history. The second-highest was $254,416 donated in 2020.

Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin said the response has been “amazing”, with the generous donations coming alongside “many” emails from individuals, groups and businesses planning food donation collections.

She said it was exciting to see both regular supporters and new supporters getting in contact.

“Considering the hardship a lot of people are facing, those that are in a position to give seem to be very on board with the appeal.”

This year has seen “record demand” for the foodbank, helping 22,298 people from 8213 households, which included 11,797 children. This was 28 per cent more than last year, and nearly 50 per cent more than in 2021.

The foodbank also spent an average of just over $20,000 per month on staple foods compared to about $14,800 the year before.

The average household experienced a 7.4 per cent rise in living costs in the year to September, according to Statistics New Zealand.

An increase in interest payments of 27.3 per cent was the biggest contributor, followed by rises in the cost of grocery food (11 per cent), rent (5 per cent), insurance (12.9 per cent) and property rates or related services (9.6 per cent).

According to Stats NZ’s most up-to-date Consumers Price Index, the prices of meat, fish and poultry increased 8 per cent on the previous year.

The index also recorded a 4.6 per cent hike in transport costs and a 5.3 per cent rise in the cost of housing and housing utilities, including energy.

Trade Me rental figures show the median rent in Tauranga was $680 in August, with prices viewed as likely to keep rising over the next year as supply dropped.