Maraenui woman's community Christmas hamper drive a success

Napier resident Piri Taurima has started a successful Christmas hamper drive.

Around 60 hampers of food and gifts were donated to families in need this Christmas.

Hampers contained enough food for a family Christmas dinner and were made up of chicken, gravy, fresh and canned vegetables, steamed puddings, canned fruit, grape juice and other non-perishable items as well as lollies for the children and chocolate for the parents.

There were also around 200 gifts for the children.

Local businesses provided Taurima with items for raffles so she could raise the money to purchase food. She estimates around $1500 was raised which was used to purchase the contents of the hampers.

Taurima is the founder of the Mason Ave Community Pātaka Kai Aroha in Maraenui, which inspired her to do more to help families in need around Christmas.

"Seeing the huge need out there every day I really wanted to do something to give families some joy and hope around this time of year," she said.

Taurima believes the impact goes deeper than just providing someone with a meal.

"It's the fact that people can know someone else cares for them and are empathetic without judgement. It might just change someone's life receiving this," she said.

She described some people being close to tears when telling her how much the donation meant to them.

Hampers were given out on December 23 at Richmond School.

Local Facebook groups were used to organise volunteers and find the families the hampers were donated to.

Individuals could comment on Facebook posts or message Taurima to nominate themselves or others for the hamper.

She had "at least 200 people" message her with hamper nominations so had to draw names from a hat at random.

Next year Taurima wants to provide "a minimum of 100" Christmas hampers to families. With a Facebook group of over 100 volunteers, she is confident she will be able to do this.

"I'm very ambitious but I always achieve my goals.

"I just love community work and working with and helping people, it's something I feel passionate about," she said.

Non-perishable food items and money for next year's hampers can be donated any time throughout 2020. People can volunteer and keep up to date with her work on her Facebook group or donate money via the Givealittle page .