Donations have flooded in to Janine Walker’s Hillside Rd home, with blankets and sheets now piled by the doorway and throughout the house.
While support had been higher than she expected, so was the extent to which people were struggling, she said.
Prevented from working by a disability, she founded the home-based bank almost three months ago with the aim of using her time to help people.
"I just saw a giant need and thought, heck, something needs to be done.
"I knew the poverty problem, but I didn’t realise it was going to be this bad."
For example, she had recently helped a father and his children.
"They were all sleeping in his bed, because they didn’t have beds or bedding or anything."
Last week she gave away 40 blankets and had just six left when she put out a call via the Dunedin Bedding Bank Facebook page asking for donations on Friday.
She had worried she would run out completely, but the response turned out to be "amazing".
About 50 blankets were donated by yesterday morning, which she hoped would last two or three weeks.
Many students were preparing to leave the city now that the academic year was almost over, she said.
She hoped this would also bring a flurry of donations.
"That would be fantastic — I have got people that will do pick-ups for me."
Since she started the bank in mid-August, she had lost track of the amount of items donated.
About 90% were either new or in good condition, and the odd item with an unpleasant stain was not passed on.
About 68 bedding packs had been given out so far.
Content depended on what people needed, but there was a typical formula.
"It’s normally two blankets, a mattress protector, two sets of summer sheets and two sets of winter sheets, and pillows and pillowcases.
"I try and do it so they’re set for all year round."
October’s unexpected snowfall had brought a surge of demand from people trying to stay warm, and she was already thinking ahead to how the bedding bank would prepare for next winter.
