Record haul: Whanganui food bank drive results in 560 boxes of goods

Last Thursday's annual Food Bank Drive collected 560 boxes of goods - the largest haul of any year to date. Photo / Supplied

The generosity of the Whanganui community was on show during the food bank drive, which resulted in a record-breaking haul for the Whanganui City Mission.

Held annually in October, the drive has a number of volunteers traversing every suburb within the Whanganui city boundary collecting non-perishable items for the mission, which experiences a jump in demand over the festive period.

The event is organised by the Wanganui North Rotary Club, which enlists the help of rotary members and local businesses as drivers, as well as year 12 Whanganui Collegiate students to act as runners.

This year's event was pushed back from its traditional Thursday-after-Labour-weekend date to accommodate the Collegiate students whose schedule was interrupted by Covid-19 restrictions.

Terry Coxon, the organiser of the drive, says the event resulted in 560 boxes of food items collected - the highest total in the history of the drive.

"Our average over the last half a dozen years or so has been around 360 boxes, so this is quite a jump," Coxon said.

"Compared to last year's 500 or so boxes, it's another record-breaking year."

Coxon said there was some concern among organisers that inclement weather could result in a smaller collection.

"But we ended up with our total, which was obviously much higher than expected, so the weather proved not to be a worry.

"Our thanks particularly go to the two senior Collegiate pupils allocated to each vehicle who ended up being very wet foot soldiers."

After speaking with the mission, Coxon said the shelves were more full than they had ever been.

As for why the community appeared to be boosting its support for the campaign, Coxon suggested it is likely to be related to the increasing awareness of those in the community struggling as a result of the pandemic.

"Last year we put the success of the drive down to people being conscious of the effects of Covid, so I suspect the same has been seen this year.

"There is a lot of generosity out in the Whanganui community and we ought to be very proud."