Record haul for food bank

Wednesday night's collection for food to stock the region's food banks is being hailed as the best ever by Masterton and South Wairarapa organisers.
In Masterton volunteer collectors and sorters were kept busy for much of the day yesterday, dealing with the vast quantities of food that came in ? four times as much as the previous year.
Russel Carthew, spokesman for the Masterton South Rotary club, which organised the Masterton effort, said there was huge community input from the police and fire services, the Air Training Corp, the St John ambulance guys, and Wairarapa College students.
He said that yesterday morning the team packing up the food counted 7000 cans alone, which doesn't take into consideration all the other foodstuffs people kindly donated.
Mr Carthew put the record haul down to the power of advertising, which had let big numbers of people know it was on, and to which the public "responded".
The food gathered would be distributed to needy families for "several" months yet, Mr Carthew said.
In South Wairarapa it was also a bumper year, with Rotarian Perry Cameron confirming it was the "best year ever".
"It was the best collection to date, right across the board. Because of the publicity there were significant amounts of food and cash donated." He said donations of several hundred dollars were made, and that money will pay for bulk food that will be added to the bank.
One worker involved in the Masterton collection, Sanchia Hooker, said it was about time a food bank was set up in Featherston.
"There are a lot of poor people there, and they desperately need a food bank."
The food was not collected without ruffling a few feathers, though.
On the night the police and fire service get involved, and use their sirens and lights to alert people that the collection has reached their street.
This did not meet the approval of Featherston man, Martin Haywood, who said this use of emergency vehicles is not the best way of going about doing a collection.
"To me it's like over-selling. Why do they need to go around with alarms?
"I didn't know what it was, I thought the school was on fire."
He said the sound of the sirens, which went off and on for about an hour, was noisy and disruptive, and an invasion of people's privacy. He said private citizens are encouraged to be quiet and respectful.
"My main point is it's an abuse of people's privacy and an abuse of emergency vehicles. They should be used for emergencies and nothing else."
Carterton Rotary is planning a collection for sometime in the coming weeks.