Cira Olivier: Tauranga Community Foodbank appeal support needed more than ever

If Covid-19 has taught us one thing, is that Tauranga knows how to give. Let's do it again this Christmas. Photo / File

OPINION

It's been like sitting in a car, your hands strapped to your sides, unable to steer or brake as the vehicle accelerates towards oncoming traffic.

This is how I describe 2020.

I imagine I wasn't alone in feeling extremely helpless and out of control. Feeling vulnerable and insecure about what was going on, and what was going to happen next.

From months that felt like they would never end, we've suddenly found ourselves with nearly seven weeks until Christmas.

Right now, some people will be starting to make plans, thinking about what to have for Christmas lunch, where to have it, how much prep you need to do between then and now.

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But there are others whose vision is blurred from the stress of how to put food on the table right now, let alone what might be eaten for Christmas.

The season for giving is also the season where bills pile up and shoulders ache with the mounding pressure of the expectations around this time of year: presents, food, holidays.

Through this year, I have seen successful companies crumble, hundreds lose their jobs, and thousands wearing the worst of Covid-19.

"Even if you've so far survived Covid financially, everyone's very vulnerable because we don't know what's going to happen."

These are the sombre words of Tauranga Community Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin, who says the organisation helped feed more than 17,500 people this year - 21 per cent more than last year.

With the effects of Covid-19 still felt, and likely to be felt for years to come, people the food bank staff thought they would never see have been showing up desperate for help.

So today, the Bay of Plenty Times, in partnership with Gilmours Wholesale Food and Beverage Tauriko, has launched its annual Christmas appeals to raise food and money for the food bank.

I think it's more important now than ever to give what you can because of the events of this year.

I remember while reporting during the lockdown and crying a lot; seeing the hardship and struggle devour the region.

But there was also a lot of crying from being overwhelmed by seeing the compassion that came out of the pandemic. Seeing people give everything they could to help strangers who needed a little extra help.

People such as the staff and volunteers at the food bank.

We live in such a compassionate community, and I know the people of Tauranga will do what they can to help the food bank make a dent in the $120,000 needed for food alone.

The parcels offer more than food. They offer a sense of relief that in turn rent can be paid and life can be slightly more bearable.

The work our local food bank staff do is selfless. They pour themselves into making sure people are fed year-round.

In times of strife, communities come together more than ever. So this year, please give what you can. If it's one item or 10, it all counts.

It will mean the world to the people on the receiving end.

And none of us knows if or when we might be the ones needing help.

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