Teen targets canned food for needy
A rise in the number of people needing emergency food parcels has seen the canned food stocks of the Auckland City Mission almost exhausted.
Since January, the City Mission has provided more than
3000 emergency food parcels, containing more than 49,000 cans of food, a 28 per cent increase on the
2334 distributed in the same period last year.
‘‘This shows how many people are desperate and hungry in our community,’’ Alexis Sawyers, team leader for fundraising, said.
The lack of cans was indicative of a rise in need over the past three months, and she said the Mission was tracking to distribute almost 15,000 emergency parcels by the end of June – the highest in the mission’s 98-year history.
‘‘Since we have already seen increased demand in the first quarter of the year, we are very concerned about how many people will need our help over the winter months.’’
The mission traditionally saw a spike in demand for emergency food over winter, as people on low incomes struggled to buy food in the face of higher electricity, heating costs and prescription changes, Sawyers said.
However, the response to the mission’s urgent April 22 callout for canned food was ‘‘very heartening’’.
‘‘People have responded amazingly to our call-out to help replenish our stocks.’’
One of these, was 13-year-old Ash Binns from Auckland’s North Shore, who hoped to deliver 1000 cans to the mission on May 5.
In just over a week, the year 9 student from Long Bay College has collected 608 cans from among members of the East Coast Bays community, plus packets of pasta, noodles, nuts and soup.