All Saints' Church's Otago Healthy Living Trust has established a fruit and vege co-op to help people save money and eat better.
Co-ordinator Nicki Wallis said they have had a ''deluge of interest'', with an estimated 1000 people phoning in, emailing or calling into the church in the five days following the front page article in The Star.
Many of the calls were ''crisis calls'' from people in need and she had heard lots of stories of difficulty, she said.
''I had people sobbing on the phone, people who can't pay the rent, haven't been able to buy vegies for two or three years. I have had to send people to food banks.''
The deluge of interest has meant a delay to the start of the buying co-op until at least the middle of March while they process the huge number of interested people, develop systems to cope with the volume of interest and recruit volunteers.
Mrs Wallis sent out a plea to other interested people to only make contact by email (admin@allsaintsdn.org.nz), rather than phoning or calling in. She also appealed for volunteers to help run the programme.
Her personal mobile number, which was offered as a contact in The Star last week, had ''crashed'' under the sheer weight of calls being made to it.
She estimated about 100 messages had been lost while the mobile phone was out of action.
Last week, the trust said it needed about 30 people to start buying in bulk from MG Marketing and could offer vegetable packs for $3 per person, $6 a couple and $12 for a family of four.
All Saints' Church vicar Michael Wallace said the huge response to the programme was ''a wonderful problem to have'' because it meant they had identified a real need.
He said they had offers from other churches to be distribution centres in several suburbs around the city and were hoping for more help right across the city, including Mosgiel and Green Island where there had been high demand.
The landline contact number listed in last week's article was incorrect. The correct number is 479-2212 but should only be used by those without access to email.
