Issue #957

by Lee Nicolson - Baskets of Blessing

Queenstown’s Baskets of Blessing volunteer organisation coordinates generous donations of products, time and money to deliver unexpected gift baskets, frozen meals and food packs. Our recipients are all struggling from unanticipated life predicaments and are nominated anonymously via our website, then actioned without vetting or judgement.

Those impacted range across all ages, socio-economic groups and cultures. Their situations range from falling victim to accidents or illness, mental and physical fatigue, sudden bereavement, and financial hardship to name a few.
Our purpose is to build a strong, supportive community through gestures of love and kindness. Increasingly, local individuals and families are facing incredible challenges, typically without family or support networks.

Regrettably, ever since Covid, we are still seeing an ongoing increase in stress and trauma, at the coalface in our community. Individuals and families alike are constantly being impacted by the associated connected spiral between physical, mental and financial health. Any one of these issues, often create ongoing negative effects in another form.

Physical or mental challenges through accidents or illness, can quickly lead to financial strain. Most noticeably, there is an increase in migrant arrivals (including families with children) thrown into financial chaos upon arriving with a promise of a job, but severe delays in visas being granted see them with no income, no bank account, no accommodation and no support.

Getting people back on their feet to resume normal lives after their times in crisis is at the core of our ethos. They often express their gratitude with high emotion, and admit our assistance helped them greatly ‘at the top of the cliff’ rather than as ‘an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff’. They often progress into paying it forward by volunteering or donating back to our organisation.

Baskets of Blessing’s partnership with Kiwi Harvest is critical as our volunteers receive ‘rescue food’, previously destined to landfill, and use it to create delicious nutritious meals. We embrace our volunteers’ vast skillsets and life experiences, taking onboard their suggestions, and have the flexibility to confidently and fluidly adapt our systems to improve our operations and community reach.

Whilst our name has become more recognised in recent years, the scale of our operation is often underestimated. During the 2023 year, we dispatched 12,617 meals through our weekly Thursday service, we cooked 13,438 meals, dispatched 1710 food boxes, 387 gift baskets with a total of 22,425 accounted volunteer hours.

We are constantly humbled and heartened that what we do is not only deeply appreciated but is meeting a genuine need. It is infectious what a passionate, generous and motivated team of volunteers can achieve. We will continue to grow and respond to community need as we seek the flourishing welfare of our community.