Greenwood Park retirement village residents collecting for foodbank.
A group of socialising "rollers" at a retirement village have wasted no time doing good for the community.
The Bay of Plenty Times' six-week Christmas appeal for the Tauranga Community Foodbank ends on Friday.
John Rowlandson, 95, started the Greenwood Park Village Rollers a year ago after he started usinga mobility scooter and wanted to connect with more people in the village.
He put the word out to anyone he saw scooting around and now has 26 people in the Rollers.
They meet on the second Sunday each month and have a meal together and ride around and explore the village.
One of the members had the idea to ask all residents to put a can of food out by their mailbox if they wanted to, and the rollers would pick up the food.
Members of the Greenwood Park Village Rollers: Mike Lord, Joy Atkinson, and John Rowlandson (left to right), alongside Colleen Gunn (second from right). Photo / George Novak
The groovy group collected 25 reuseable bags-worth of donations.
Rowlandson said it was wonderful to see the residents keen to support the cause through the group.
"I love it. We're going to do it again next year," he said, saying he would like it to be a tradition.
He said the original idea involved other rest homes around the city, but because of the risks around the pandemic, it wasn't allowed.
However, the retirement village chief executive came back with $500 of Countdown vouchers for the Foodbank to use how it saw fit instead.
He said he would like to see other villages do the same thing.
Although the donations were many, he wasn't surprised at how much came in as the residents were "very generous".
Many, instead of looking at what was in the pantry, had gone to the supermarket specifically to get items to donate.
Rowlandson said they did not want people to feel pressured into giving something as most at the village had a range of charities and organisations they supported in some way.
Joy Atkinson, Mike Lord, John Rowlandson on the move. Photo / George Novak
His partner Colleen Gunn said the Foodbank was chosen to give to as it helped a range of people.
Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin said the appeal brought Christmas spirit to the village as well as helping the Foodbank.
One of the volunteers was a resident and Goodwin said she had let them know about the drive and was very excited.
On Monday, it was revealed the community had helped crack $100,000 in donations in less than five weeks for the foodbank.
As of Thursday last week, there was a total of $103,337 in cash and food donations; $71,301.44 in cash and 16,018 items donated, which are valued at $2 each.
