Office hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm.
There was a reminder about food parcels.
“Our kai parcels are for emergency/crisis situations only. Each parcel is designed to provide up to three days of food and is made up entirely of donated goods. As donations vary, no two parcels are the same, but we do our best to gather and provide as much as possible for our community. Please ensure whānau are aware of this.
“Since launching our sustainable kai model in April 2025, we’ve seen 20% reduction overall in foodbank usage (high-users), better targeting to those in genuine crisis, more first-time users, greater uptake of wraparound services,” the newsletter said.
It also said that in the past financial year, 37,500 people accessed SuperGrans services.
These included its wraparound services, food parcels, financial mentoring and workshops on topics like kai literacy, cooking, sustainability and parenting advice.
The organisation had formed a partnership with the organisers of Gisborne’s annual music festival Rhythm and Vines, which included SuperGrans chairwoman Molly Pardoe performing at last year’s festival as DJ SuperGran.
The music helped put SuperGrans into the spotlight.
“It is exciting, but, you know, it’s for a good cause. SuperGrans is a pretty fantastic organisation, so we’ll do anything if we’re going to be able to promote it,” Pardoe told The Gisborne Herald in a pre-festival interview.
The newsletter referred to a partnership being formed with Eastland Toyota and thanked The Greenlea Foundation and David Hine for their support.
On Wednesday, SuperGrans Snapshot - a mini presentation by the Tairāwhiti branch’s strategic adviser Sarah Elliott - was held at the organisation’s premises in Pitt St.
Elliott talked about the organisation’s background and what it needed from the Government and other supporting bodies.
East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick was among those attended and she spoke to staff and volunteers.
The SuperGrans Tairāwhiti team are Elliott, strategic adviser; Crystal Stankovich Te Ua, finance and operations manager; Zoe Spedding, receptionist and marketing co-ordinator; Naleya Ahu, social worker and volunteer co-ordinator; Rachel Louie, foodbank co-ordinator; Brooke Matthews, community navigator; and Carolyn Shore, financial mentor.
