Bags of sweets and hand-knitted Christmas toys are some of the thousands of generous donations Tauranga’s foodbank has received this week.
The Bay of Plenty Times’ annual six-week Christmas Appeal for the Tauranga Community Foodbank launched two weeks ago.
As of 8am yesterday, the foodbank received a total of $31,957. This is broken down to $25,327 in cash donations and 2652 food items, with each item valued at $2.50.
Last week, the total cash and food donations was $9047.50.
At the same time last year, the total sat at $46,060 from $40,025 in cash donations and 2414 food items valued at the same price.
Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin said it had been another “great” week of the appeal.
One of the donors, “long-time supporter” Lyn, arrived with bags of sweets and other goodies, “gorgeous” hand-knitted Christmas toys, and other treats for kids this week.
Goodwin said they also had extra volunteers on who have “been amazed at people’s generosity”.
She said it was exciting to have new volunteers joining the usual teams, and always felt “super proud” of all the amazing volunteers.
“The buzz of the appeal is obvious and I ask that our community continue to provide much-needed donations,” she said.
She said the cash and food items will help meet the ongoing demand into the New Year.
This year, the foodbank helped 22,298 people from 8213 households, which included 11,797 children and spending an average of just over $20,000 per month on staple foods compared to about $14,800 the year before.
The average household experienced a 7.4 per cent rise in living costs in the year to September, according to Statistics New Zealand.
An increase in interest payments of 27.3 per cent was the biggest contributor, followed by rises in the cost of grocery food (11 per cent), rent (5 per cent), insurance (12.9 per cent) and property rates or related services (9.6 per cent).
According to Stats NZ’s most up-to-date Consumers Price Index, the prices of meat, fish and poultry increased 8 per cent on the previous year.
The index also recorded a 4.6 per cent hike in transport costs and a 5.3 per cent rise in the cost of housing and housing utilities, including energy.
Trade Me rental figures show the median rent in Tauranga was $680 in August, with prices said to be likely to keep rising over the next year as supply dropped.
Any items are welcome, even if they’re not on the list. Cash donations are also welcome.
The vehicle was damaged while later being towed and an $11k claim by the owner followed.