Free stuff online for Rotorua families

REACHING OUT: Elmer and Gina Peiffer run Facebook group Free Stuff Rotorua and give produce away daily. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

Want free produce? Rotorua woman Gina Peiffer is giving it away.

It's all thanks to a collaboration between a Rotorua donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, and Love Soup Rotorua.

Mrs Peiffer, together with her husband Elmer, runs the Facebook group Free Stuff Rotorua - FIFS, which is an online hub for people giving things away.

She is also the cook for Love Soup Rotorua, cooking up meals four times a week for the city's homeless. Every day she gets a delivery of fruit and vegetables, which would otherwise go to pig farmers.

Once she has taken what is needed for Love Soup Mrs Peiffer takes a photo of what's left over and tells people to head over to her house.

"I usually have enough for 30-odd families," she said.

"We've a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. We get a delivery every day of food that needs to come off the shelf but is still viable for human consumption.

"Our agreement is that we take what we need for Love Soup and then give the rest to the community. People arive with a box or a bag and go shopping for their family. It's normally gone within the hour."

Yesterday they received 13 crates of food and had 60 people come to their home. More went out to a school. Over the weekend more than 70 people stopped in at her Lake Rd home and took home salad leaves, passionfruit, feijoas and other produce.

"It works beautifully," Mrs Peiffer said. "So many people are being fed. It was going to pigs otherwise but now we get the best of what's left."

She said those who came to her door were humble and often had to be persuaded to take more.

The Facebook page, which Mrs Peiffer started in March last year, has helped people get heaters, blankets and firewood for winter. "It's needed now more than ever," she said.

"There are a lot of selfless people out there. My father always said I should never win Lotto because I would give it away. It would be great if it wasn't needed. It would mean everyone was fed and housed correctly."