Every Thursday for the past 10 years, volunteers with the All Saints Fruit and Veges scheme have delivered pre-ordered fruit and vegetable packs to the library for local people to collect.
In recent months, community eatery The Bowling Club, which provides low-cost meals at its Caversham restaurant and offers meal deliveries via volunteers, has come on board to deliver meals twice per week.
Blueskin Bay librarian Louise Booth said the All Saints Fruit & Veges programme had been very popular among a broad range of local residents, because it was "simply really good value".
The volunteer-run scheme, which has operated out of All Saints Church in North Dunedin since 2015, aims to meet the need for affordable food in the community.
All Saints Fruit and Veges co-ordinator Julanne Clarke-Morris said the not-for-profit project, which used bulk-buying power to supply bargain-price fruit and vegetables to households battling constantly rising food prices, catered for hundreds of families across the city each Thursday.
The produce is generally sold in pre-ordered packs, valued at $4 for one person, $7 for two people and $14 family packs.
Ms Clarke-Morris said using the resources of the church and the many community volunteers involved in the scheme meant prices had remained stable for several years to ensure accessibility for the community.
"We hear feedback from people that they are grateful to be able to access inexpensive fruit and vegetables in these tough times."
Ms Booth said the All Saints Fruit and Veges service was accessed by about 25 residents of the north coast area, with numbers waxing and waning depending on the time of year.
"We have a lot of gardeners in this area, so at the moment some people are getting good amounts of produce out of their gardens and that’s great," she said.
Ms Booth received the fruit and vegetable bags herself and said it "was a nice midweek surprise" to see the produce that arrived and then to plan meals accordingly.
In recent months, The Bowling Club has also offered a meal delivery service, via volunteers, to the Blueskin Bay Library twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"I have been impressed by the quality of the meals provided by The Bowling Club, and the range on offer, including vegetarian and gluten-free," Ms Booth said.
"So we are keen to spread the news that this service is available as well."
As well as providing good-value, low-cost meals and produce, managed on a voluntary basis by Ms Booth, the programme also brought community members into the library when they picked up the bags.
"It’s all valuable community engagement for us," she said.
• All Saints Fruit and Veges customers must pre-order and pay (online or with cash) by Monday for the produce packs. The funds are used for the scheme’s weekly shop.
To sign up and order, visit the website All Saint's Fruit and Veges or Facebook dnfruitandvege, or phone the parish office on (03) 479-2212.
• To order meals from The Bowling Club, visit https://thebowlingclub.co.nz/collections/delivery-order
