Christmas Appeal: Nearly $40,000 in food and money has been donated to the Foodbank

Tauranga Commnuity Foodbank's Nicki Goodwin (left) and Brendon Collins. Photo / George Novak

Just under $40,000 worth of cash and food donations so far have been made to the Tauranga Community Foodbank.

The Bay of Plenty Times' annual, six-week Christmas Appeal, in partnership with Gilmours Wholesale Food and Beverage Tauriko, launched on November 7.

As of yesterday morning,

there had been $33,727 in cash donations, which included the $15,000 donation from Pāpāmoa's Bluehaven Group for the foodbank's new van.

A total of 3031 food items have also been donated.

Tauranga Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin told the Bay of Plenty Times it was difficult to put into words what the donations meant to the foodbank, or how it changed lives.

"It's going to make a difference," Goodwin said.

The donations were a promising start to the $120,000 the foodbank had budgeted for food alone heading into next year.

Goodwin expected this to increase as the demand continued to rise, with a total of 311 parcels given out since the appeal began - more than 19 every day.

She said the volume of donations so far gave them certainty that they will be able to continue into next year "as strong as ever" to serve the community.

Goodwin said it was also heart-warming to see the public's continued trust in its service to take care of the donations and support locals who need help.

Yesterday,

a man came into the foodbank with a trolley filled with groceries.

"His family decided they're not spending anything on Christmas presents, so they used the money they would normally spend on going to the supermarket and buying food for others."

Goodwin said she was sure the family would be the first of many to make similar decisions.

The Christmas Appeal food donations usually get them through until April and the cash donations help them out until about May.

But there have been two occasions where an emergency mid-year appeal was needed to boost their supplies.

"If this support continues, it's going to give us that surety that we're going to have ample food supplies until April."