St Vincent De Paul Hamilton general manager Mike Rolton in the charity's Hamilton foodbank. Photo / Peter Tiffany
St Vincent De Paul Hamilton general manager Mike Rolton in the charity's Hamilton foodbank. Photo / Peter Tiffany
Image / Supplied
Christmas always puts extra pressure on foodbanks, but Mike Rolton says he has never seen the need as high as it is shaping up this year.
"Its become worse, all the foodbanks will tell you that," says Mike, who leads the team at Vinnies in Hamilton that provides food parcels for families around the city and the Waikato who struggle each week to make ends meet.
On top of this "normal" demand they are now aiming to find food and a few treats to put together hundreds of Christmas hampers in the next two weeks.
To meet the cost of this extra demand, the St Vincent De Paul charity in Hamilton, where Mike is general manager, and The Hits Waikato radio station have launched Fund A Feed. Text FEED to 206 to make an instant $3 donation; or head online to the Hits.co.nz to donate to the Fund A Feed Givealittle page.
Donate either way and be in the draw to win a $200 food hamper donated by campaign sponsor New World.
Or, If you're shopping in Mitre 10 in Hamilton, buy a $3 inflatable hammer for $3 and the whole amount is donated to Fund A Feed.
The appeal is open until December 17 to allow time to go shopping for all the food - and hopefully a few Christmas treats to go into the festive hampers. Fund A Feed is replacing the annual Hits Toy Run for Vinnies because of the difficulty in organising the regional collection amid the challenges of Covid and traffic light protocols.
"We have already got requests for 400 Christmas hampers, but we haven't actually got the food for that number," says Mike. "We've got food for about 150 so far, although the total needed may be nearer 500 as we get closer to Christmas. He says the Vinnies foodbank is seeing a lot of first-time people coming for help this year.
"That's really difficult for Kiwis today, we're seeing a lot of mental wellbeing problems, especially after our recent lockdown, after three or four weeks you see the strain; people were really on edge, like I've never seen them like that," he says.
"There's the rent issue, there's the low-paid-worker issue, there is a reduction in working hours, not quite so much now but in the lockdowns, there's a combination of factors that drew them to us for help.
The Hits Waikato host Blair Dowling says it is heartbreaking there is this kind of need in our community, and it now affects so many people.
"I think especially at this time of giving, the best gift is the gift of giving and very appropriate after the year we have had," says Blair
Vinnies general manager Mike Rolton and The Hits host Blair Dowling on the Toy Run bus last year. This year's appeal is for money to buy food for Christmas hampers. Photo/ Danielle Zollickhofer
"Food is the commodity that people really need, and we are mindful that we have large families, some really large families applying for help," says Mike.
"Today we had a family of three adults and 10 children, and that's becoming the norm, anywhere between six and nine in a family is common. It wasn't like that before; it is because maybe nieces and nephews have moved in with a sister who is doing reasonably well and may have taken them under their wing.
He says it is common to see a combination of families all living in one property. "There could be two or three families – that is a reflection of the housing situation as well – you've got one toilet, one kitchen, you've got all these people living there and struggling to find enough food.
"We are expecting Christmas to be pretty much full on for us, so it is important that the Fund A Feed drive goes well so that we can meet the demand," says Mike.
He said that during lockdown the Government supplied a lot of food to foodbanks, but at the end of level 3 that mostly stopped. "So those pop-up foodbanks, they no longer exist so we get the overflow of their customers coming here, which is why I have estimated the numbers to be high for Christmas." says Mike
"We are no different from the Auckland City Mission or anywhere else, but this Christmas will be worse than past Christmases."
Although food is the priority in Fund A Feed, Mike says Vinnies does have a limited number of toys on hand and will try to include something in parcels for families with children. But the appeal is not seeking donations of toys this year.
"Hopefully, we will be able to come back with full force on the Toy Run next year. Right now, we are trying to make everyone's Christmas as merry as possible, we are doing our best."
