Tauranga Community Foodbank board chairwoman Barb Thompson started as a Christmas Appeal volunteer. Photo / Mead Norton
Tauranga Community Foodbank board chairwoman Barb Thompson started as a Christmas Appeal volunteer. Photo / Mead Norton
Barb Thompson’s journey from Tauranga Community Foodbank volunteer to its new board chairwoman began with an online advertisement.
It’s been a full-circle journey for Thompson, who first heard about the foodbank when she spotted an advertisement calling for Christmas appeal volunteers online in 2018. Four years later, she has now been appointed the foodbank’s chairwoman, while still volunteering once a week.
Thompson shared her story with the Bay of Plenty Times as part of the newspaper’s six-week Christmas Appeal to raise funds and food donations for the charity.
Thompson - who moved to Tauranga from Bermuda with her husband the year before her journey began - thought volunteering would be a good way to grow roots in the community.
“I hadn’t really done any volunteering since high school. When I was working, I didn’t have the time.”
Thompson still remembers her first day at the foodbank.
“I just remember everyone being quite welcoming,” she said.
“There were many other volunteers there who knew what they were doing. They had sorting the donations down to a science, so it was like I was slotting into a well-oiled machine.”
Tauranga Community Foodbank board chairwoman Barb Thompson started as a Christmas Appeal volunteer. Photo / Mead Norton
Thompson enjoyed her volunteering experience so much that she decided to volunteer at the foodbank again in 2019.
Then in 2020, she joined the foodbank’s roster as a regular volunteer.
It was on one of her Thursday volunteer shifts at the foodbank that Thompson noticed Tauranga Community Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin working on accounts.
Thompson, who had worked as a chartered accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers before she retired and came to New Zealand, offered to lend Goodwin a hand.
“Nicki told me that the board’s treasurer had just stood down and they would need a new one. She asked me if I would be interested.”
Thompson became the foodbank board’s treasurer in May, 2021. In September of this year, Thompson stepped up again to fill the role of board chairwoman.
“Things are a little different at the foodbank every year, but a constant is how energetic and ready to help everyone is,” Thompson said.
“Our volunteer base and staff are awesome, and I’m constantly surprised by the generosity of our community.
“Whenever we run low on something, whether it’s food or volunteers, we don’t even need to ask. It’s great to see the diversity of support that’s out there for us.”
As an organisation with more than 30 years of history, Thompson said the foodbank was seen as a safe set of hands - she wants to keep it that way.
“We put our clients at the forefront. They are the reason we are here and we want to show them respect.”
Thompson said the foodbank’s staff and volunteers were doing more deliveries to reach all corners of the community.
“We’re also looking to partner with other organisations like the council to tackle food security as a wider project.”
No matter her role at the foodbank, there is one more thing Thompson wants to keep. She still makes sure she does her normal volunteer shift at the foodbank on Thursdays.
“It’s really rewarding to know we are helping people. You can just feel their relief. Sometimes you get a hug, and sometimes you can see it on their faces.”
