New World South Island launches food bank appeal

Photo/caption: City Missioner Michael Gorman waiting to fill up the depleted shelves at the Christchurch City Mission Food Bank

South Islanders are being urged to fill brown paper bags with non-perishable food and drop them back to their local New World supermarket as part of a one-week campaign to bolster the supplies in food banks.

More than 110,000 paper bags will be inserted in provincial newspapers throughout the South Island from next week.

Kent Mahon, the New World South Island Group Manager, said that what started as a local Christchurch initiative several years ago, has now gone South Island wide.

“In the last two years we have expanded the appeal by giving customers the opportunity to make cash donations via special boxes located on each of the manned checkouts throughout New World’s stores in the South Island. They proved popular and this will be repeated this time.”

“For those customers who do not receive a bag or wish to donate at the store, they can just bring their non-perishable items to the local New World outlet.

“We understand the important part that food banks play in our community, and that is why, as a group, we are such strong supporters of the initiative,” he said.

If Christchurch is an example, the demand for food parcels throughout the South Island is growing. The number of food parcels given out in Christchurch increased by 34% from 2011 to 2012. More than 28,000 parcels were issued in 2012, an average of 2,357 per month.

Rachel Scott, project manager for the Christchurch City Mission food bank, said that about 80% of the food at the Mission is donated by the community.

“As costs escalate more waged people need emergency food parcels. At a minimum, a family food parcel costs $34 and a single food parcel costs $21. Extras such as toiletries are $20 and perishables are $20.”

A food parcel is expected to last four days. The total value of food donated in 2012 was over $500,000. In addition the Mission spends approximately $80,000 on staples.

The Mission provides 13 services and runs nine Op Shops at a daily running cost of $13,000. Over one year these services directly helped more than 26,000 people as well as having wider impact on their families, friends and communities.

The paper bag appeal runs from July 29 to August 4.

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