More than 1500 tinned food donated to Sallies Whangārei

Resene Whangārei store manager Nunnah Munday, right, helps Salvation Army Whangārei staff load up the donated food cans. Photo/John Stone

A month-long promotion where the public donated canned food in return for testpots of paint raised more than 1500 cans of food for the Salvation Army in Whangārei.

Resene ran the promotion in February throughout New Zealand where customers were given a testpot in return for a tin of food.

The company collected 1503 cans of spaghetti, baked beans, creamy tomato soup, and fruit salad that were handed over to the Salvation Army.

It was 700 more than last year's collection in Whangārei and Gay Matoe from the Salvation Army's Food Bank said it was a wonderful gesture from the public and Resene.

"The donated items are such a huge help. I was running out of spaghetti when help arrived. It's good to be able to put some bulk food in the food parcels," Matoe said.

She said usually between eight and 10 canned food are put in a food parcel for a family and five for an individual that also contained milk, bread, eggs and meat.

Resene Paint Shop manager in Whangarei, Nunnah Munday, said the popular promotion has been running for five years and the feedback was fantastic.

She said a lot of people including schools and churches used testpots, which retailed for between $4.60 and $5.60 each, mainly for decorations.

"We had people calling us throughout the year asking when the promotion will be held. It's quite popular but we didn't expect the feedback this year to be huge," she said.

Salvation Army helped 355 families in Whangārei in the last quarter of 2018.