Full shelves
REGION: Groups helping Palmerston North’s hungry most have been given a boost by the city’s residents prior to the busiest time of the year.
Groups helping Palmerston North’s most hungry have been given a big boost prior to the busiest time of the year, thanks to the generosity of the city’s residents.
The annual food drive on Saturday saw the streets lined with bags of food, all to be donated to those in need.
Emergency services drove around the city, blaring sirens to let residents know to put out food, before volunteers from Lions and Rotary clubs gathered the donations.
Everything was then dropped to a depot to be sorted and split 50/50 between the Salvation Army and Methodist Social Services.
Salvation Army mission coordinator Peter Barton said they had not yet done a final count of how much food they collected, so were unsure how the effort compared to previous years.
Last year the donations filled 881 banana boxes, and they had hoped to top that.
Either way, the food banks were now in a far better position than before the drive, Barton said.
The Salvation Army’s warehouse had been particularly bare, with the organisation running out of rice in the days leading up to the drive.
‘‘It’s now looking good, and we’ve got plenty of food,’’ Barton said.
‘‘It really is the busiest time of year for us, by far.
‘‘Christmas puts another layer of pressure on for people working anywhere.’’
Putting on the food drive was a big job, so Barton was especially keen to thank all the volunteers who made it possible.
‘‘Every year it just happens. The food comes in on trailers, utes, SUVS and gets dumped on the tables and sorted.
‘‘[Saturday evening] there were people everywhere just sorting and shifting cartons of food. I reckon we had near on 200 people helping at the warehouse.’’
The volunteers may have missed some streets, leaving some donations uncollected.
Barton said they could be dropped into the Methodist Social Services at 663 Main St, or the Salvation Army on the corner of Princess and Church streets.
People could also drop food or other home supplies into either organisation anytime.