Stepping up to the plate
KiwiHarvest is calling for urgent ‘in kind’ support so it can move location to the vacant Whakatipu Community Hub Charitable Trust leasehold site at Frankton, after government funding cuts means the food rescue organisation can no longer afford its Glenda Drive site.
It was yet another devastating blow to the charity, already under the pump with financial donations massively down and lower surplus food donations.
Sadly, the winter KiwiHarvest Givealittle fundraising campaign has only raised $565 with a target of $50,000. “That money goes into stocks for charities who have to buy food if there’s not enough donated,” says KiwiHarvest Queenstown manager Gary Hough. Help agencies have had to restrict food to a small paper bag. “We just don’t have enough food,” says Hough.
Some people genuinely can’t afford to help any more, even through supermarket donation trollies, but Hough says there’s a growing apathy that those needing help should ‘help themselves, get out and find a job’, which is unfair as most people KiwiHarvest is helping are working families, some with two jobs, he says.
Donations are down and KiwiHarvest needs between $20,000 and $30,000 to set up operations on the vacant site, should final approvals come through. KiwiHarvest’s now calling for local businesses to offer free services to help get them set up. “We need two 7m (20-foot) shipping containers, a groundworks contractor to flatten and gravel the site, an electrician to hook up three-phase power for our refrigeration and chiller, help from a civil engineer and a fencing contractor to secure the site.”
KiwiHarvest helps feed 800 people in the district, supplying Wanaka and Cromwell charities, local agencies, community trusts, and Queenstown Playcentre’s hampers for struggling families.
With just two months before Hough and his team of twelve local volunteers have to move and donations way down, he says they don’t have time to try and fundraise for the necessary money. “We’re on borrowed time.”
Hough’s so grateful that the Community Hub Trust is hoping to save the day. He, and the numerous charities KiwiHarvest supports, are incredibly grateful to those in the trust trying to make it work.
“It’s not 100 percent finalised but it’s looking very positive,” says trustee and former chair John MacDonald. “This is absolutely the reason why we’ve driven this thing. It’s a classic example of what happens to these poor people trying to do the right thing by the community and they get shoved out the door.” Queenstown’s needs secure, affordable, long-term rentals for the community’s social sector, he says.
If the proposal gets official approval KiwiHarvest can operate there until the new hub is built and Hough says they’d then be keen to move in, once it’s completed.
“These are the kind of clients we’re looking for,” says MacDonald. The trust is hoping to start construction late next year, fundraising going to plan. “We’re still fundraising from various trusts and private donors.”
Meanwhile, Hough is keen for more volunteers to take on shifts with KiwiHarvest and share the load.
If you are able to help email Gary Hough on gary.hough@kiwiharvest.org.nz or phone 021 286 9808.
