Editorial: Charity warms heart

The Bay Of Plenty Times reporter Amy McGillivray collecting food for the community food bank.

It's humbling how generous people are.

A group representing the Bay of Plenty Times on Tuesday carried out the first can drive for this year's annual Christmas appeal, raising food and money for the Tauranga Community Foodbank.

The suburb we chose for the first of three can drives was Arataki where we went door to door in streets such as Concord Ave, Berescourt Pl, Paterson St, Carter St and Farm St.

We met some wonderfully generous people. I was blown away at how many local families gave what they could. Many locals had a smile on their face and were only too happy to help.

At a couple of houses that I visited, I also had young children ask what I was collecting for. I told them and explained how the foodbank feeds people who cannot afford to feed themselves.

At other homes, parents got their children to transfer the donated food into our bags. I think this is a wonderful way of teaching young people about helping others less fortunate than themselves.

Volunteer firefighters in a fire truck helped raise awareness by sounding their siren, which piqued many people's curiosity as to what was happening.

Our next can drive will be in Otumoetai on Wednesday, December 9, and we'll bring you more details closer to the time.

The campaign, launched on November 4, has had a blistering start with more than $12,000 in food and money raised so far.

This amount includes a whopping $7500 in food vouchers donated by Hillsdene Charitable Trust, and $1000 from Legacy Funerals, and $1000 from Barnard Property Management.

These major donations deserve huge credit and will make a dramatic difference to many lives.

Christmas is less than five weeks away and there will be many families struggling to put food on the table and celebrate this important time of year. There will be many others who will face difficulties next year.

The foodbank, led by Mike Baker and his hard-working team, does an impressive job of helping people in need.

The good thing about this appeal is that people don't have to donate lots of money - a can or two of house brand baked beans is perfect.

We have more than four weeks to go until the appeal ends, so I would encourage people to get involved and help.

I'd like to say a huge thanks to all individuals, businesses, schools and other organisations who have donated so far.