Food-banks from Thames to Kaitaia Celebrate

Representatives from 60 food-banks between Thames and Kaitaia gathered today to celebrate the work of hundreds of food-bank staff and volunteers.

Representatives of community food-banks who receive food supplies via the Auckland City Mission’s Foodlink programme gathered at the Mission’s Auckland distribution centre this morning to acknowledge the huge amount of work that goes into providing food to thousands of families.

‘Every week Foodlink helps to feed 1,000 families’, said Auckland City Missioner Diane Robertson. ‘Many of the 300,000 New Zealand children living in poverty are reliant on the food distributed by participating food-banks. The work carried out by hundreds of staff and volunteers who run these community food-banks and the importance of the bulk contributions we receive, goes largely unnoticed,’ she continued. ‘It’s important to acknowledge just how big a role food-banks and Foodlink plays in our community.’

With representatives from Goodman Fielder, Fonterra and SunRice in attendance, Ms Robertson also made special mention of those businesses who generously donate bulk supplies to the Foodlink programme. ‘Every week we distribute pallets of staple food items donated in bulk from a core group of businesses. With food donations down by 14% this year, these donations are vital to the sustainability of all the food-banks involved and we are especially grateful for the ongoing support of all our corporate donors.’

Background:
Auckland City Mission receives bulk food donations and distributes them to smaller community food-banks. Foodlink is the only programme of its kind in New Zealand.
Included in the Mission’s Foodlink programme are food-banks in across Auckland and from as far afield as Thames, Dargaville, Kaitaia, and Waiheke and Great Barrier Islands.

Every year the Mission distributes more than $2,200,000 worth of donated food through Foodlink and the Mission’s Emergency Food Parcels.
Key corporate supporters of Foodlink include: Goodman Fielder, Unilever, Nestle, Fonterra, Sanitarium, Bell Tea, Bluebird, Sun Rice and Purity Foods.
In addition to the Foodlink programme, the Auckland City Mission has distributed 7,300 emergency food parcels in the past 12 months.

ENDS

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