On November 28, the emergency services did a food drive around the city, collecting donations from The Lakes and Mount Maunganui communities for the foodbank.
Pinkerton said the foodbank did “such a great job” feeding those in need and the emergency services were happy to help.
He thanked Neighbourhood Support, Community Patrol, Western Bay of Plenty Disctrict Council, Tauranaga City Council, Civil Defence, Tauranga Community Foodbank, Salvation Army, and the off-duty ambulance and police officers who helped out on the night.
Greerton Volunteer Firefighters acting officer in charge David McLaughlan said about nine firefighters joined in the “fun-spirited” community collection.
He said it was a “great” community event and got the kids excited and involved and it was “amazing” to see people donating as much as they were “out of the goodness of their hearts”.
Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin wished she knew who the young boy was who saved up his coins to be donated.
She said the 3800 items donated from The Lakes was a “huge” amount collected and they were grateful to Bay Venues for allowing them to use Greerton Hall for the donations to be sorted into boxes.
They were yet to count the items donated from Mount Maunganui.
The foodbank hasn’t been able to include snack foods for families such as two-minute noodles, muesli bars, chips or crackers in the average of 33 parcels sent out each day.
Cash donations are also welcomed, as they mean the foodbank can purchase items it needs when it needs them.