Hospice's Kerikeri sorting centre to bring extra $100k a year

Aerial view of Hospice Mid Northland's new store and sorting shed under construction. Photo / Aerial Vision

A new store and sorting centre for donated goods could help Hospice Mid-Northland raise an extra $100,000 a year, the organisation says.

The extra money will be used to provide specialist palliative care to terminally ill people across the Mid North.

The 675sq m insulated-panel building — only the third of its kind in the district — has been taking shape on the charity's Kerikeri Rd property, next door to what used to be Pete's Pioneer Museum, in the past several months.

It is due to be opened on September 28 by Health Minister David Clark.

Hospice Mid Northland staff, from left, Carol Jurisich-Price, Adele Woodward, Jenny Coleman, Lisa Puru and Rod Matthews show off a few items in front of the organisation's sorting centre for donated goods. Photo / supplied

General manager Belinda Watkins said Hospice Mid-Northland sold donated goods through its op shops in Kerikeri, Kawakawa and Kaikohe, bringing in about $500,000 a year or 41 per cent of its total revenue.

The existing processing centre, in Kerikeri's Masonic Lane, could no longer handle the growing volume of donated goods.

Space constraints also restricted Hospice's ability to move goods quickly and efficiently to where they could be sold, she said.

It also posed risks for Hospice's mostly elderly volunteers. Eight out of every 10 health and safety incidents recorded at the site involved volunteers tripping over goods in the cramped conditions.

Falling over donated goods will soon be a thing of the past, however, thanks to the $900,000 building.

The bulk of the funding came from Pub Charity, with $200,000 from operational income and two years of intensive fundraising. No bequest money had been spent on the new building, Watkins said.

The construction project had been managed on a pro bono basis by Far North Holdings, the Far North District Council's commercial arm.

"This has saved us about 10 per cent of the total build cost and an enormous amount of stress and disruption," Watkins said.

"We're essentially a healthcare organisation with clinical and support staff who work alongside volunteers – there's no way we could have briefed architects, planned and managed the financials, dealt with the consenting process and managed the contractors in the way that Far North Holdings has. We're very grateful.''

The shed-like structure was a cost-effective way to create the space Hospice Mid-Northland needed while the insulated panels would keep heating and cooling costs to a minimum.

Up to 35 volunteers would be able to work in the new building, most of which would be used for storing medical equipment and processing donated goods for sale.

About a third would be a dedicated furniture sales area so donated furniture didn't have to be double-handled.

The extra money generated by the new building would help pay for the ever-growing need for palliative care in the Mid North, she said.

Hospice Mid-Northland's clinical team will stay in the organisation's existing Kerikeri Rd building, behind the new sorting shed. The Hobson Ave op shop will remain where it is.