Christmas Appeal: Rotorua Salvation Army Food Bank manager on keeping bellies full

Rotorua Salvation Army Food Bank manager Tracey Ball says the organisation aims to “focus on the wholeness of a person”.

Ball shared her story as the Rotorua Daily Post, supported by The Hits Rotorua 97.5FM, runs its annual Christmas Appeal to collect donations of food and money to help fill the foodbank’s shelves.

The appeal is in its sixth and final week, ending this Saturday.

The Christmas Appeal will continue until December 23 to help the Salvation Army keep up its good work through the Christmas period and into 2024.

Ball said the small sacrifices such as “that little boy who used his pocket money to get a can of food for Fill the Bus” or “the family who didn’t have much but they still chose to give all those things” made a positive impact in the Rotorua community.

“If we can make a difference to one person, just one person. If we can feed or keep someone warm, feed their belly, give them a purpose and a hope then that’s great,” she said.

“Every person has a right to be seen and to be heard... we can’t fix everybody but we can one at a time... show that love and we can also give hope as well.”

She said growing up “we were a family who didn’t have much”.

“We used to get given food parcels, different things, clothing and what a difference that made to my mother who couldn’t manage.”

It was “humbling” to be given support and “it helped us as children to not have to go without”.

She said the experience was always in the back of her mind while working at the organisation.

Ball, who stepped into her food bank manager role in October, believed the Salvation Army had helped deliver about 3500 food parcels this year but said the reality was the organisation “can’t sort of sustain that”.

“We have to aim to look at helping the whole person.”

She said a supermarket-style foodbank may be in the works for next year.

“Then we’re allowing the whānau to come and make their decisions for what they want.”

Ball said the organisation was also looking at ways to help people financially to “look after their money, to know how to manage their money” as well as lifestyle programmes so “life is worth living again and it’s not so overwhelming”.

Christmas could be a difficult time because of social expectations such as gifts or a “big meal”.

“If we talk about the reality of today there’s a lot of broken families, there’s a lot of families who don’t have income coming in,” Ball said.

“That’s where we need to just come in and not judge one another. You really will never know the difference that you’ve made to someone else”.

She said living in Rotorua the community was “amazing”.

“We can’t do it on our own and we do need the generosity of the public.

“I just want to say to the community, thank you so much for all that you have given.

“You’re giving to such a great cause.”

Michaela Pointon is an NZME reporter based in the Bay of Plenty and was formerly a feature writer.