KEEPING IT COOL AT THE HĀWERA FOOD BANK

Hāwera Food Bank is a voluntary organisation that collects and dispenses food to people in the local community.

"The need seems to be greater than ever, especially since Covid," said Ruth Rangiwahia, Treasurer.

"But as well as our yearly food drive, we're lucky enough to have day-old bread coming in from supermarkets. 'On The House' also sends food, Tegel gives us large eggs, a farmers group donates mince, and we get fruit and vegetables that are close to their use-by date. With all that perishable food it means we're forever rotating food around and searching through freezers to find what we need."

Funding of $45k from the Toi Foundation has enabled the Hāwera Food Bank to buy a large walk-in chiller and freezer, with further funding to employ one of their volunteers.

"We currently collect a lot of that food and make up 40+ packages each week. Our main volunteer works 30-35 hours. That's a lot of time, and she'd be very hard to replace, so we asked Toi for funding to pay her for those hours," said Ruth.

"Having the chiller and freezer means we can streamline our operation. We can keep perishables longer and get ahead by starting to prepare packages earlier and then storing them in the chiller. We can be more organised with our frozen food. Until now, we've had to put food wherever there's spare space. Now, we can dedicate freezers, like having one for milk and one for meat. It will be far more efficient and cut down on waste.

"I can't speak highly enough of the Toi Foundation and what they've done for us."