Economic crunch spurs food drive

COLIN SMITH/The Nelson Mail

FOOD SUPPLY: Paul Lamb, top, and Grant McNeill start the food drive.

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An 87 per cent increase in demand for food over the winter has Nelson Foodbank struggling to meet demand, but a food drive started by 30 Random Acts of Kindness campaigner, Nelson man Grant McNeill, might go some way towards alleviating that.

Foodbank co-ordinator Jackie McCullagh said demand was climbing, but donations were dropping "because the whole community is feeling the pinch".

In August, 244 people needed the Foodbank compared with 130 in April.

"That's a hell of a jump, isn't it?" said Mrs McCullagh.

"It's exactly the same in Blenheim; they're struggling, and I think it's the same over the whole country."

She said she thought any move out of the recession would take a long time to filter down, despite indications of economic recovery,.

"I think [economic recovery] is going to be very slow to catch up with Tom Jones on the bottom of the heap because we see a lot of low-income people," she said.

The Nelson Mail will be a drop-off point for Mr McNeill's 12th Random Act of Kindness.

Launching his foodbank campaign yesterday with sponsor Paul Lamb from Blueberry IT, Mr McNeill said he hoped to spread his 30 acts through the community as widely as possible, including getting businesses involved.

"It's not just about me going out and doing these random acts of kindness, it's about community support," he said.

"We have so many businesses in the CBD and if every person brought in one can we'd have hundreds and hundreds of cans down here," he said.

He said ideas for his random acts of kindness kept rolling in as people got into the spirit of the idea, he said.

"We had a woman who we gave away a Little India voucher to and she said since she didn't have a Little India in Picton she was going to put it on Trade Me and raise the profile of the website to get more people involved."

The Nelson Mail marketing and promotions manager Bonnie Slade said the paper was pleased to support the appeal.

"We hope to build a bigger food mountain than previous collections and everyone's encouraged to come in and make it as big as we can get it," she said.

From Monday to Friday, local Rotary clubs will be collecting food to bring to the Nelson Mail offices. Next week's challenges for Mr McNeill will be offering people on the street a mobile phone to make free calls anywhere in the world, and dressing as a fairy and putting money in parking meters. Follow his progress on 30days.co.nz

SEEKING HELP

Foodbank increases since April: April: 130 people May: 166 people June: 199 people July: 193 people August: 244 people

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