Held just before Christmas every year for the past 16 years, the appeal aims to stock up Dunedin's combined food banks at their busiest time of the year.
From 6pm next Thursday, vehicles from the Fire Service, St John Ambulance, Dunedin Police, New Zealand Army, Red Cross, Rural Fire Service, Civil Defence and community organisations will move slowly throughout the city, with sirens sounding, calling householders to donate non-perishable food items.
Running alongside them will be hundreds of volunteers, ready and willing to gather the foodstuffs from beside letter boxes, or accept them personally.
Next Thursday's Community Can Appeal covers Dunedin city and suburbs, as well as outlying suburbs such as Portobello, Port Chalmers and Waitati. It will not cover Mosgiel, Brighton, Fairfield or Abbotsford, which will have a collection on December 15.
Can Appeal organising committee member and Roslyn Firefighter Richard Yardley said Dunedin's Fire Stations would be the gathering point for vehicles and volunteers before setting out at 6pm.
Anyone who would like to volunteer as a runner, or foodsorter was asked to make their way to the nearest Fire Station before then, where they would be ‘‘welcomed with open arms''.
‘‘We have a lot of vehicles out collecting, and move through the city as quickly as we can,'' he said.
‘‘Our aim is to be finished by 8pm, so the sirens don't disturb young children too much at bedtime. We often get a lot of young people volunteering, which is great to see,'' Mr Yardley said.
The appeal was well supported by the community, gathering ‘‘truck loads'' of much-needed food for the food banks, he said.
After the collection is complete, the foodstuffs will be sorted and packed into cartons for distribution to Dunedin's combined food banks.
This year's Can Appeal will be the last co-ordinated by Jenny Donaldson, of Anglican Family Care. The stalwart worker for grass-roots community welfare, who has co-ordinated the appeal for the past 16 years, will hand over to Salvation Army South Dunedin Family Store manager Jane Orbell next year.
