Foodbank Drive for City Mission sees wonderful community generosity

The starting point for the Foodbank Drive.

Some 33 years ago, the Foodbank Drive for City Mission was initiated by the now-disbanded Rotary Club of Wanganui South, now a part of the Wanganui North Rotary Club, which now runs the drive. As usual, this year’s event took place on Thursday, October 19, before Labour weekend.

That day, 39 vehicles were assembled with volunteer drivers, mainly Rotarians, but this year, they were greatly assisted by firms like Loaders, Edmonds Painting, Plumber Dan, Heavy Towing, Resene, Wanganui Towing, MTF Finance, Mainfreight and Columbus Cafe.

All vehicles had signage and sirens affixed and set forth with two foot soldiers, senior Whanganui Collegiate pupils, per each vehicle to cover every street in the greater Whanganui urban area. This year, with the help of district council staff, some new maps dividing up the town were included for growth areas.

Volunteer collectors ready to go after their briefing.

The collectors left at 6pm and were out and about for at least two hours before returning to the drive-through drop-off point between Farm Supplies and P. O. Collectables, where the goods were sorted by more volunteers, including City Mission helpers and more Collegiate pupils.

Up until the impact of Covid, the annual food donations had remained fairly constant, but in the last four years, the generosity of the public has markedly increased the amount of food being given, indicating a strong public awareness of the needs of their fellows and the less fortunate.

“This year, with inflation badly affecting household budgets, we wondered if the result would match those of the previous post-Covid years,” said Wanganui North Rotary Foodbank Drive convenor Terry Coxon.

“We were agreeably surprised that the generosity was as good as ever, showing that compared with pre-Covid times the average number of boxes of food added to the foodbank has risen from 350 to an average of 500, or an increase of about 40 per cent.

“The foodbank store is again bulging! Certainly, the demands on the City Mission foodbank have never been greater than right now, and Wanganui North Rotary, aided by the generosity of Collegiate, Pak‘nSave, the press and radio and all those other volunteers and helpers, are proud of our effort.”

This year the foodbank appointed a new manager, Dr Antony Nobbs, who said City Mission Whanganui is privileged to be the recipient of such amazing generosity in the Rotary 2023 Food Drive.

“It was a fantastic event that brings together individuals, companies and community to support those in our community who are doing it tough.

“As someone new to Whanganui, I was deeply touched by how kind, generous and fun-loving all the volunteers were.

“The food drive is a really significant event for the City Mission and plays a major role in the provision of food parcels to our city.

“From all of us here at the City Mission – thank you Whanganui, we are truly grateful for your generosity,” he said.