Enjoying the gift of giving
The annual New Plymouth foodbank drive is a win for the whole community. As well as filling the foodbank’s shelves, allowing the organisation to continue feeding the hungry, it also fills the hearts of hundreds of collection volunteers with a renewed hope in humanity and gives every household in New Plymouth the chance to experience the joy of giving.
On Monday, 17 volunteer crews in New Plymouth and four in Bell Block, each with a truck, stack of boxes, support vehicle and police car escort, took to their assigned section of the city to collect food and return it to the St Mary’s Peace Hall for sorting.
It’s incredible to watch a truck fill up with all sorts of food, including hundreds of cans, packets of pasta and flour, chutneys, toiletries, and lollies for the children.
But what’s even more heartening is to see the act of giving bind a community, whether it was a freshly-bathed child in their pyjamas or the man with a gang patch on his back handing over grocery items.
Not one person gave begrudgingly, perhaps all fully aware of the truth that it is always better to give than receive.
After hours of running the streets, about 16,400 steps for those in the Taranaki Daily News team, no-one mentioned anything other than how impressive the mountain of food in the peace hall was.
It was enough to support the foodbank until August, its manager Sharon Wills said.
Last year was a record and Wills said this year’s stack was even bigger. So large, in fact, it would take the army of high school students tasked with sorting it all about seven hours of hard slog to do so, she said.
‘‘People have been extremely generous. ‘‘I’m constantly amazed by how generous people in New Plymouth and Bell Block are. Every day we’re open people walk up and give us something.’’
And there’s no doubt the story was much the same in Waitara, Stratford and Ha¯ wera, where other drives were taking place on Monday.
As a region, that’s something to be proud of. Taranaki, i te pai to mahi.
– Blanton Smith, News Director
Not one person gave begrudgingly, perhaps all fully aware of the truth it is always better to give than receive.