Coffee campaign replenishes food bank cupboards
Whanganui’s City Mission food bank has a new stock of much-needed items, thanks to a coffee cart proprietor and his loyal customers.
Paul Harris, who operates The Village Snob on the riverbank opposite Pakaitore/Moutoa Gardens, celebrated his business’s third birthday by swapping a cup of coffee for a can of food on Monday, March 4, and donating the cans to the food bank.
Harris ran his Coffee for a Can campaign for the first time last year and was thrilled with the number of cans brought in, but said this year’s response was “huge”.
“It was definitely up on last year, both for donations and patronage in general,” Harris said. “I believe it was double last year.”
City Mission manager Karrie Brown said her team was “pretty overwhelmed” by the number of cans Harris delivered to the food bank.
“It was lovely to see items of food we are needing on a regular basis, like tinned tuna, corn and tinned vegetables,” Brown said.
“We’re really grateful that Paul has put us in his mind to support us. I’m sure a coffee costs a lot more than some of the cans, so he’s giving quite a lot from himself as well.”
The food bank got another good boost on Monday with a church group delivering items such as peanut butter, Vegemite and other spreads.
“Obviously, the community have heard quite often what we do need,” Brown said. “A group will come in with just tuna or bags of rice because they’ve heard that’s what we need at the time. It is really lovely.”