Whanganui City Mission and MP launch $750k drive to buy Park Place base

Anthony Nobbs says the City Mission is constantly humbled by the community's kindness.

Whanganui City Mission has the chance to buy its premises, but $750,000 needs to be raised by September next year.

The organisation moved into 9 Park Place last year, with a right-to-purchase agreement agreed with the owner.

The City Mission food bank manager, Dr Antony Nobbs, said owning the building meant stability and the ability to plan for the future.

“We were next door at 7 Park Place for a long time, and someone who is anonymous did a social investment by purchasing this building to allow us to come across,” he said.

“It’s given us three times the floor space we used to have.”

The organisation opened a social supermarket at the site last November.

Nobbs said there was also a teaching space and a commercial kitchen at the site, which allowed City Mission to run cooking classes, programmes for women from challenging situations, and a drop-in for homeless people.

“It [purchasing the property] is about longevity and having a home, rather than being at the mercy of renting.

“Not paying rent means a significant saving, which goes towards providing food.

“The number of people we are feeding has doubled [compared with 2024], and we couldn’t have done that if we hadn’t been in this building.”

Whanganui MP (National) Carl Bates said he had offered to form a working group to fundraise, which was “warmly received”.

“Time was ticking, and we needed to take action,” he said.

“I convened a meeting of some people I thought would be willing to say yes and get involved, and from there, momentum is building.

“We’ve already got people committed to fundraising, including a limited number of art prints to give to people and businesses who make a $1000 commitment.”

Bates said some funding had already been set aside, and the $750,000 figure was the remaining amount required.

“The great thing about the process is people don’t have to hand the money over straight away, the City Mission has until September next year to purchase the building.”

Nobbs said the City Mission had been operating since the 1990s, and “we want to be here for at least that length of time going ahead”.

“What we do for the next generation is we provide less cost for them to be able to do the mission.”

He said the City Mission was constantly humbled by the community’s kindness.

“People are so generous with their time and their money, and without them, none of these people would be being fed.”

Bates said a chairperson for the working group would be appointed soon, with further details about fundraising activities to follow.

“This is a great opportunity to support City Mission Whanganui in a tangible way,” he said.

“The Mission has supported so many people in need in our community – it’s time to reciprocate.”

Those who are keen to be involved in the fundraising effort can email carl.batesmp@parliament.govt.nz.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is on local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.