Cans boost City Mission Xmas stocks

Snehaa Chand, Stephen Coward, Violet Lawrence, Debbie Bennett and Cam Calkoen load donated cans into boxes. Photo / Greg Bowker

Auckland City Mission's food stores received some much-needed supplies yesterday with a can-collecting exercise run by young people and volunteers with intellectual disabilities.

Members of the public left more than 1000 cans of food at a truck parked outside the City Mission on Hobson St.

The day, dubbed YES iCAN, was run by the Yes Disability Resource Centre in Auckland and the charitable organisation iCAN to mark International Day for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities.

Organiser Cam Calkoen said a similar event in Wellington in June had collected a world record of 54,527 cans, and he hoped that yesterday - the first time iCAN had collected cans in Auckland - would help expand the event before next year.

Mr Calkoen said the day was about youths and youths with disabilities "giving something back" to the community.

The iCAN message and the can collection day were also about empowering youth, he said.

City Mission spokesman Stephen Coward said the cans were crucial for covering the Christmas season, when more families needed assistance.

"We're desperately short of cans so this ... will get us through the next couple of weeks with the food parcels. It's fantastic."