Taupō Food Bank receives donations with a difference

Taupō Community Food Bank manager Eileen Devane prepares food boxes with donated mince and recipe cards.

Taupō Community Food Bank has received a significant ongoing donation in the form of meat from farming enterprise Pāmu and charity Meat the Need.

The organisation provides packs of mince every week to the food bank, which then distributes them to families and individuals in need.

As part of their donation, farmers and Pāmu staff have also handed over their best, easy mince dinners to make recipe cards, which are also being distributed in boxes.

Designed to use pantry staples and be simple to make, the recipes include cottage pie, nachos and spaghetti bolognese.

Taupō Community Food Bank manager Eileen Devane said the mince makes all the difference to the quality of food parcels they can distribute.

“It’s a huge staple protein in a foodbank. It’s immensely important for us to build the food parcels up with mince.

“It’s been an absolute game-changer for us in terms of our parcels.”

The cards have been going into the boxes for around a fortnight, and are likely to be a big hit, she said.

“Just having these recipe cards to have into these boxes, it gives people an idea of what to do with the meat.

“I think the recipe cards are a great idea.

“They’re easy to read and easy to follow.”

Currently, the charity is distributing between 40 and 60 boxes a month, with each box providing a week’s worth of food.

These numbers have been stable for some time, but the groups using the service have changed more recently.

“We’re still seeing significant numbers, but we’re seeing a different trend in the community.

“We’re seeing two-income families who have had something [expensive] like a car repair, and food is one of the first priorities to go.

“We’re seeing more of those people coming through than we’ve seen before.

“It’s really tough out there for working families.”

Milly Fullick is a journalist based in Taupō. She joined the Taupō and Tūrangi Herald team in 2022.

Stay up to date with the Waikato Herald

Get the latest Waikato headlines straight to your inbox Monday to Saturday. Register for free today - click here and choose Local News.