Ten years of giving back to the community

A group of staff from Baygold did a town clean up as part of the company’s Kick Off Charity Day. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

If Te Puke town centre is looking a little cleaner than normal this week, it’s down to staff from Paengaroa orchard company Baygold.

Friday saw Baygold’s charity day — a pre-kiwifruit season tradition called the Kick Off Charity Day — with staff supporting three initiatives.

In Te Puke, a team donned gloves and filled bags with rubbish.

Back at Baygold’s RSE, accommodation staff were busy creating meals to go to Kura Kai and there was a third team that included chief executive Carl Simmons out at the Rotoehu Forest contributing to the conservation efforts of Rotoehu Forest Trust.

The chief executive’s executive assistant Kerry Latter said the charity day, which involved permanent, contracted and casual staff, began with team building in the morning.

“Then in the afternoon, we give back to the community.”

The charity day has been going at least a decade. Baygold also organises other clean-up days involving RSE workers during the kiwifruit season.

Kura Kai is a charity working to provide a stock of frozen meals for families, held at the schools it supports, including Te Puke High School.

It raises funds to buy chest freezers that are donated to the schools and then builds a local community of volunteers who give their time, money and resources to cook nutritious family meals to help keep the freezers well stocked.

Baygold staff with the meals they made to pass on to Te Puke High School through Kura Kai.

The school can then identify need and distribute the meals.

The Rotoehu Ecological Trust oversees about 1493 hectares of native forest in Rotoehu Forest and Rotoehu Forest West.

Collaborating closely with the Department of Conservation, it oversees the management of land, with conservation of kōkako central to its mission.