'Humbling': Hawke's Bay business's employees donate Christmas bonuses to charity

Nourished for Nil co-founder Christina McBeth sorts through food at the Karamu Rd-based charity. Photo / File

Staff at a Hawke's Bay business are sure to be on Santa's "nice" list after they donated their Christmas bonuses to Nourished for Nil.

The donation made on Tuesday, to the tune of $1540, was made without any fuss by an unnamed business, leaving the charity over the moon.

Nourished for Nil co-founder Christina McBeth said the funds landed in her inbox with no prior warning.

"From a local business it is one of the bigger donations we have received.

"We had no idea this was coming our way. It's really nice to have a bright spot pop up like that."

She said the donation was humbling.

"These people decided they wanted to support us with something earmarked to support them-their Christmas bonuses. And that is humbling.

"[With the donation] We decided that we will create a separate account and maybe make it part of our 'rainy day' funds.

"The funds could then go towards paying our security guard, whom we hired six weeks ago.

"Unfortunately where we are located there is not a lot of street parking, and people were parking on the forecourt so we had to hire a security guard who is paid only for an hour, but works two hours."

The funds could also go towards the volunteers, she said.

"The money itself is enough, the sentiment behind it is what means more to us.

"This is what it is all about, it doesn't actually get much sweeter than that. The sentiment 100 per cent blows us away."

Nourished for Nil was formed in 2017 by Christina McBeth and Louise Saurin with a mission to rescue food that would otherwise go to waste and redistribute it to the Hawke's Bay community.

They are a local non-profit organisation with a simple system, rescuing food from donors to recipients in the space of mere hours.

The team has committed volunteers with a shared passion for reducing waste and helping the community.

Nourished for Nil does not discriminate, judge or label any community members who find themselves needing their service. They are open to everyone.

More information can be found on https://www.nourishedfornil.org.