Food bank gets a boost
The 791 banana boxes of food collected during the annual Palmerston North food drive are about to be bumped up.
While the collection day total was down on the 881 banana boxes gathered in 2016, Salvation Army mission co-ordinator Peter Barton said they were heartened by people continuing to drop off items at the Salvation Army and Methodist Social Services during the week.
The food drive was on November 28, but last Friday further donations came from two of the city’s Countdown supermarkets.
‘‘We’ve included a little bit of Christmas in there,’’ manager at Countdown Rangitı¯kei St, Marie Hodgson said.
As part of Countdown’s annual countrywide Christmas Food Rescue Appeal, Hodgson said each supermarket donated a $500 trolley-load of food to the Salvation Army food bank, while encouraging customers to make additional donations.
Salvation Army captain Stewart Lee said the seasonal items from the trolleys would be useful for stocking the hampers they would send out to needy families before Christmas – a food parcel with all the ingredients for a Christmas meal.
He said the demand for food parcels in Palmerston North had risen 7.31 per cent during the 12 months to the end of September, while heavy demand was expected to continue into the new year.