Te Puke emergency services food drive on next week

Unloading the collected donations at a past emergency services food drive in Te Puke.

People are doing it tough, and sirens on the street next week will signify an opportunity to help.

Next Thursday is the annual emergency services food drive.

Police, Te Puke volunteer firefighters and St John Ambulance staff will be joined by staff from the Ministry for Primary Industries and students from Graeme Dingle Foundation’s Project K collecting donations for Te Puke foodbank, run out of The Hub Te Puke.

Foodbank manager Clare Cooper says things are tough for people at the moment with the foodbank recently giving out 70 food parcels in one week.

“I think one of the big things at the moment is people who have had mortgages for a couple of years at 1.99 per cent, now it’s come unfixed and they are looking at 6 to 7 per cent. Our financial mentors are saying they are not even sure how some people are managing.”

There has also been a major increase in the number of people using the service for the first time - with around 75 per cent of those receiving food parcels last month first timers.

While the demand is increasing, Clare says the foodbank isn’t in a bad place, but says the food drive will be invaluable in dealing with the pre-Christmas and holiday times.

“As foodbanks go we are coping really well, but that’s only because our community is so giving and then we also have such a good collaboration between other services and organisations.

“We get the leftover [free] school lunches at the end of the day so they are going out again instead of being wasted and I’ve just taken on eight new volunteers because we weren’t coping,” she says, to illustrate the success of the foodbank.

“We also get good support from the community garden, Judy Abrahams, the two supermarkets and Baker’s Delight.”

As a result, there are some areas where the foodbank is well stocked.

“We are getting a bit specific this year because there are some things that we just do not need, just because of the way that we’ve been blessed with them during the year, but there are some things that we really, really need.”

What’s needed: noodles, Milo, margarine, Vegemite and Marmite, soap, tinned beetroot, edible Christmas treats, jelly.

What’s not needed: baked beans, rice, pasta, tinned corn and crackers.

Collectors will meet at Te Puke Fire Station at 5pm on November 16 and then head out on to the streets.

“There always seem to be people that they miss but can only do what they can do. I think they are going to have quite a big crew this year so the bigger the crew, the more we can get out there into the community.”

Anyone who is missed but who wants to donate can do so at The Hub Te Puke on Jocelyn St.

Many in the community also donate fresh fruit and vegetables harvested from their gardens.