The shelves at Dunedin foodbanks are looking much healthier, thanks to a flood of donations from individuals and businesses.
Last week the Otago Daily Times revealed the city’s four food banks — Presbyterian Support Otago, the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul and the Mosgiel Community Food Bank — were in dire need of support.
Record demand and dwindling donations were creating significant pressure.
The news sparked an outpouring of support from the community, with businesses, organisations and individuals doing food drives and calling for donations on social media.
After its annual fundraising garage sale, Dunedin Host Lions decided to make a $700 donation to each of the three central city foodbanks.
Garage sale convener Jenni Mattingly said it was a worthy cause, and the foodbanks had gone above and beyond during the start of the most recent Covid-19 lockdown.
Presbyterian Support Otago practice manager Deb Gelling said there had been a really good response from the community to the organisation’s plea.
There had also been a lot of people saying there were still donations to come.
‘‘It’s already made a significant difference, it’s already had an impact,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s so nice to see we can go back to giving out our normal food bank parcels, rather than having to reduce what we’ve put in the packs to spread them further.’’
Work had begun on an alternative to the annual can appeal, which usually involved emergency service vehicles driving around the city collecting donations for the foodbanks.
It had to be cancelled this year due to Covid-19.
Ms Gelling said details for an alternative collection should be finalised early next week.
