Hungry and homeless families set to benefit from mid-winter charity fundraising
The dire plight of Auckland’s homeless and hungry families has again spurred one of Auckland’s leading restaurant and
bar groups to throw its charity fundraising support behind the Auckland City Mission’s winter food appeal.
Six restaurants and bars across Auckland have joined forces to hold a month-long multi-pronged fundraising initiative.
Each of the venues is running a variety of initiatives with the dual aims of making $6000 for the Auckland City Mission,
and raising public awareness of the charity’s work feeding hungry families and helping house the homeless across the
city.
Among the initiatives taking place at De Fontein in Mission Bay, De Post in Mt Eden, The Ponsonby in Ponsonby, and The
Occidental in the central city, Malt Bar in West Lynn and The Paddington in Parnell, will be:
• $1 gold coin donations encouraged from patrons paying for every meal sold at all six of the venues throughout
the month of July
• Setting up ‘drop-off’ points within the hospitality venues where diners and members of the public can bring in
cans and packets of non-perishable food products which will be used to stock up the City Mission’s food banks and
drop-in kitchens
• Contributing an additional five percent of the value of all meals sold throughout the week of July 4 – July 10
and
• Installing donation boxes on every bar so that members of the public can make additional donations to the
charity.
•
It is the second year the bar and restaurant operating Frenzi Group has held the mid-winter fundraising activities on
behalf of Auckland City Mission. Last year the concerted fundraising efforts from four of the six bars generated a $5000
donation – along with umpteen boxes of tinned and packet foods – ranging from fruit and vegetables, through to soups and
dried pasta.
Belgian Beer Café charity coordinator and manager of the De Fontein Belgian Beer Café in Mission Bay, Aaron Pearce, said
the hospitality group had once again chosen to support Auckland City Mission because of the outstanding work the
organisation did, caring for many of the city’s less fortunate.
“The response we received from customers when we first ran this campaign last year totally justified our decision to
support an organisation which may not be as glamorous or high profile because of the nature of its work,” Mr Pearce
said. “Auckland City Mission has a long and appreciated history in this city.
“However, the number people seeking assistance from the Auckland City Mission continues to rise while basic donations–
both with food parcels and cash - has fallen substantially over the past few years because of the recession, and people
struggling to make ends-meet in their own personal lives, let alone helping others. This year, the direness of that
situation has been compounded with millions of charity dollars flowing down to Christchurch following the earthquake.
“Taking all this into account, running themed-winter fundraising campaign was one of the easiest decisions we’ve had to
make all year,” Mr Pearce said.
Auckland City Missioner Diane Robertson said the charity was incredibly grateful to the six venues and their expected
thousands of customers for their combined support and donations, and hoped this year’s initiatives would be even more
successful than the inaugural campaign last year.
“In these tough economic times, it can be so easy for businesses to concentrate purely on their own operations - and
that is totally understandable. Similarly to what has been noted in the commercial world, most charities in New Zealand
have felt the direct financial impact of the recession,” Ms Robertson said.
“Whilst we have had a decrease in donations we have at the same time found that our core supporters have been 'digging
deeper'. So to have a group of hospitality businesses get behind us with their time and commitment is simply fantastic,
and very much appreciated.
“City Mission fundraising staff and volunteers will be spending time in each of the six venues to support their
activities, so expect to see our signage throughout the locations,” she added.