Winter is when things start to ramp up for the Paeroa Neighbours Foodbank.
Not only is it the coldest time of year, it’s also their busiest season with more demand for emergency food parcels than any other time of year.
That’s why the foodbank is putting out the call for supporters to help top up its shelves.
Since January 1 until June 30 this year, the foodbank has given away 203 emergency food parcels which fed 332 adults and 223 children.
The need for parcels isn’t slowing down.
Since Pataka Kai Hauraki Social Supermarket closed down in May, the Paeroa Neighbours Foodbank has been “hammered” with requests.
Committee president Sharon Hamilton said they’d probably doubled or tripled the normal amount of food parcels they’d given away since the supermarket’s closure.
“So, we’re struggling to keep food on the shelves,” she told The Profile. “We’ve been getting a bit of help from [the] Hauraki Māori Trust Board, which is good, but they’ve only got limited supplies as well.”
Operating under the umbrella of the Paeroa Community Support Trust, the foodbank required support from the community.
“Last financial year we gave out a total of 411 food parcels feeding 746 adults and 483 children – a significant increase on the previous year which saw us give out 293 parcels,” she said.
It was a reflection of the rising costs “we are all facing” as well as increased exposure due to a story shared in The Valley Profile in August, 2025, which resulted in an increase in donations, she said.
“This did also see an increase in food parcel requests as more folk became aware of our service.
“At the time it was costing us $1000 a month to restock our stores,” she said.
“We were very blessed to receive a significant anonymous donation of $12,000 which was enough to cover our monthly restock for a year.”
The most helpful food items people could contribute right now were non-perishible’s such as jam, marmite, noodles, pasta, pasta sauce, baked beans, spaghetti, cream style sweetcorn, tinned fruit, soup, rice and bread. Toiletry items were also needed such as toilet rolls, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes and menstrual products.
The Paeroa Crop Swap, Share, Learn group reached out and offered to share any leftover produce from each month’s gathering, but Sharon said the only issue was that they didn’t know what the need was going to be from week to week.
But there was another food source people could now make contributions toward.
“We haven’t been able to put meat into the food parcels for probably two or three years, because we just can’t afford to,” she said.
Now, the foodbank was part of an initiative called Game Changer NZ.
It connects hunters, butchers, donors and food banks to turn donated wild game into quality meat for foodbanks.
“For $120, one donated deer can be butchered and turned into around 200 protein meals,” she said.
“Your donation helps fund the butchering of a deer donated by a hunter for our foodbank. Once $120 is raised, Game Changer NZ co-ordinates with hunters and butchers so the donated animal can be butchered, packaged, and come back to us as meat to distribute to people in our community,” she said.
“Any donations are greatly appreciated as it means our funding can stretch further.”
Sharon’s focus was on supporting people in the community who needed it.
“I just want to do it because I can. And I believe we all should be helping where we can,” she said.
“We all need to help each other.”
DETAILS: Donations can be dropped off at the Hauraki Resource Centre, 2 Mackay St, Paeroa, Mon-Fri 10am-2pm. To donate to the Game Changer fund for the Paeroa Neighbours Foodbank, visit https://gamechanger.wgrt.org.nz/foodbank/FBWK07.
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
