Gay Matoe from the Salvation Army's foodbank in Whangārei with the donated items to be given to struggling families. Photo / Michael Cunningham
The Salvation Army in Whangārei is increasingly helping struggling families with more complex needs apart from giving them food parcels each week.
Those needs require more money and the Army is requesting public donations during its Red Shield Appeal that kicked off this week throughout New Zealand. The Army is
supporting 120,000 people throughout the country, or one in every four New Zealanders, meet their basic needs such as food and temporary housing.
Salvation Army Whangārei community ministries team leader Marlene Bowers said her staff and volunteers were seeing between eight and 25 families daily that had other needs apart from food.
That number sometimes exceeded 25, she said.
"Being able to help people with food allows us to deal with complex issues such as financial help, dealing with trauma within the family, mental wellbeing due to a lack of jobs, relationship breakdowns.
