Christmas Appeal: Ballance Agri‑Nutrients aiming for big cheese Foodbank donation

Ballance Agri‑Nutrients Christina Finlayson, (left) Maxine Smith, Annaliese Wainwright, Jamie Barrett, Danae Short, Stephanie Latham, Danusia Bathgate, Maree Hall, Amy Meade. Photo / George Novak

A toastie, a pizza, nachos - all things that can be had without cheese, but are often better with it.

Cheese can be a luxury when it comes to groceries, which is why the team at Ballance Agri‑Nutrients have been putting an emphasis on getting as much as possible from their staff appeal for the Tauranga Community Foodbank.

This will be part of the Bay of Plenty Times annual Christmas Appeal, in partnership with Gilmours Wholesale Food and Beverage Tauriko, which ends on Saturday.

Every year, the marketing team at Ballance Agri‑Nutrients record Christmas carols to raise money for a charity, and last year also donated food to a local foodbank.

Marketing leader Danusia Bathgate recently spoke to a woman from Feed the Need - an organisation focused on feeding children in low-decile schools - who said foodbanks needed butter and cheese.

The foodbank was sorted for butter, with eight years of donations from Bakels Edible Oils, in Mount Maunganui.

This year alone they received 6500 tubs or 3.2 tonnes of margarine.

However, the foodbank could put cheese in parcels only if it was donated, as it could not afford it otherwise.

Bathgate said staff decided to focus on cheese, as well as other food and hoped to fill a boot-load of the dairy products which they will take to the foodbank on Monday.

Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin said she has been blown away with the quantity and quality of good food people were donating this year, and the cheese was an example of this.

"I actually put my hands in the air and waved them around when she called," she said.

Goodwin said they would put it aside for the school holidays.

"When we're helping families with kids in the school holidays, that's a brilliant thing to be able to put into the food parcel."