A huge increase in demand for emergency food parcels has left the shelves at the Kerikeri foodbank all but bare.
The situation has become so dire that the Kerikeri-Kaeo Community Foodbank committee is appealing to schools, service clubs and the public to help restock the pantry.
Committee member Pat Harris says in
the past the foodbank typically put together 10 food parcels a week for needy families, with the surplus food going to the women's refuge.
But since the recession sent unemployment skyrocketing in the North, they've been issuing 30 to 50 a week. Supermarkets donate most of the food but demand is now outstripping supply.
Typical recipients are families where both parents have lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet.
Mrs Harris says food parcels only go to families in genuine need, which is decided by WINZ and Mid-North Family Support Service.
The foodbank covers the area from Totara North in the north to Oromahoe in the south and, contrary to popular belief, there's plenty of struggling families in Kerikeri too.
The committee has approached service clubs for help and primary schools have agreed to help out by asking children to bring a can.
Easily identifiable wheelie bins will be placed at Woolworths and New World supermarkets in Kerikeri starting today which happens to be the UN's World Food Day, for people who want to donate food.
Donations have to be non-perishables in packets or cans, with tinned spaghetti and baked beans especially welcome.
Pat and John Harris have been involved from the start with the foodbank, which first opened in the rural downturn of the 1980s.
Food was originally stored at Kingston House, then at a shop, then the Harris' garage for 16 years, and now at an undisclosed location in Kerikeri.
A standard food parcel includes sugar, flour, pasta, rice, tea, toilet paper and canned food to tide a family over when money is short.
The committee is applying for community grants so as to stock parcels with other essentials such as milk and eggs.
