Chip Packet Project founder and national co-ordinator Terrena Griffiths. Photo / Supplied
Chip Packet Project founder and national co-ordinator Terrena Griffiths. Photo / Supplied
A charitable organisation that takes small waste products to create a solution to a big problem is ramping up its expectations for 2024 in light of Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) predictions for Kiwi families this winter.
Chip Packet Project takes discarded foil packaging, such as that used for potato chips, and with lots of volunteer hours converts them into lightweight and warm foil blankets.
Since 2022 they have created and distributed 500 blankets to those in need - but now MBIE is predicting the cost of living crisis and energy cost crisis will mean over 100,000 New Zealand households will not be able to afford heating over winter this year.
Chip Packet Project founder and national co-ordinator Terrena Griffiths says with an average household occupancy of 2.7 people, that means 270,000 blankets are needed to keep these people warm.
Chip Packet Project founder and national co-ordinator Terrena Griffiths making blankets. Photo / Supplied
Griffiths said they had found the silver lining to a waste problem, saving foil from landfills and creating a valued resource, but critical to meeting their goal are $297,000 in donations, more than 85 volunteers, over 120 collection points for packets and 19 or more volunteer groups to make the blankets.
The 500 blankets made to date required 22,000 packets. Each requires 80 years to decompose.
Instead, they are cleaned and dried by donors, collected at collection points and delivered to volunteers who join the sheets together by hand using plastic sheets and an iron to produce the lightweight, but warm blankets.
Volunteer members of the Henderson Community fusion group with some of their completed blankets. Photo / Supplied
Kiwis spend $150 million on chips annually, so there are plenty of potential resources going to landfills that could be saved.
When Griffiths started, 22,000 Kiwi children were living in poverty and figures from four years prior showed more than 40,000 people were either homeless, in emergency accommodation or living in overcrowded homes and more than 60,000 people were living in uninhabitable housing.
She said anyone could help - the youngest person to make a blanket was aged 6 and the oldest 93. Volunteers were also needed in the regions for several tasks, donations of chip packets are crucial, collection points are required and cash is always needed as there was no funding.
“We have schools on board, helping with the project as part of their service awards, and we work with Corrections where clients can undertake community service,” she said.
Students from Mt Hobson School working with the Chip Packet Project completing community service. Photo / Supplied
One of Griffiths’s hopes was to raise enough cash to purchase a roller ironer which would reduce fusion time per blanket from 90 minutes to 15 minutes.
Recently Te Awamutu CAB was added as a collection point. Any bags should be cleaned and dried before being dropped off. The only other collection points in the Waikato are Ngāruawāhia Bowing Club and Tokoroa’s Forest View School. Collection points will re-open for 2024 on Wednesday, February 7.
Cleaned and prepared foil packets could also be posted to: CPPNZ HQ, 26 Tuhimata Street, St Heliers, Auckland 1071.
To find out more about how to help, go to chippacketproject.org or contact Griffiths, 022 0270 370.
Dean Taylor is a community journalist with more than 35 years of experience and is editor of the Waikato Herald and Te Awamutu Courier.
