Foodbanks in Dunedin launched a nine-day contactless drop-off canned food drive from November 27 in lieu of the cancelled Community Can Appeal.
Centre and Pastoral Coordinator Society of St Vincent de Paul in Dunedin Sarah Strang said that the Dunedin Foodbank Christmas Can Drive is supported by the emergency services, as well as the Highlanders and the Volts, Dunedin’s rugby and cricket teams, respectively.
The usual annual appeal, which happens every first Thursday of December, was scrapped this year due to health and safety concerns.
“Without that going ahead, it was looking pretty grim for next year,” she said. “That, normally, gives us six months’ worth of cans storage for the year.”
The proceeds of this current drive will be split equally between St Vincent de Paul, Presbyterian Support and the Salvation Army.
“We’re going to have contactless drop-offs of food as an alternative to the community can appeal. That’s going to be from 8 am to 6 pm every day,” she said.
The drop-off point would be at the Old Smith City building in South Dunedin.
Normally, the emergency services would go around the streets of Dunedin with sirens blaring, collect the cans from the people and drive back to deliver the goods to the Army Drill Hall. Scouts and school groups also go from house-to-house to collect donations.
But with the pandemic still raging, there were some concerns over having contact with people. The contactless drop-off will mitigate that concern.
The SVdP coordinator said that Covid-19 had affected their stock to the point that, early in November, they ran out of food.
“We didn’t know how to get on through the week. So, all I did was put a call out on our Facebook page,” she said.
The post was very widely seen on social media and many groups stepped up.
“The DCC (Dunedin City Council) did a collection through all their staff. That was an extraordinary amount of food,” she said.
She said their Christmas Paper bag appeal also took a hit, as the number of Massgoers dropped due to the alert level protocols.
“Not as many people are going to Masses as they have been the previous years. So, that had been quite uneventful. It had been a bit of a flop this year until I did that call-out. [The call-out] kept it in people’s minds, and now people have stepped up,” she said.
Anytime Fitness Gym got on board and have asked their clients to pick up a paper bag and fill it in line with the appeal. These bags then get delivered to SVDP Dunedin, which will distribute it to the needy.
With all these canned food drives going on, she said they are aware that people might get donation fatigue.
“We have to be really careful that we don’t overwhelm people,” but she added, “it’s going to be a lot of work to get us to what we’ve missed out on.”
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