Sat, Aug 17, 2024 6:00 AM
Trust feeds $30k into food charities
Kai Rescue was one of three food charities to receive a $10 donation from the Network Tasman Trust. Photo: Supplied/Nelson Environment Centre.
Kate Russell
Three food charities across Nelson and Tasman have received a $10k donation each from the Network Tasman Trust.
Kai Rescue, the Nelson Community Food Bank and Motueka Community Ministry Centre (Salvation Army) will now be able to help more people, thanks to the funding boost.
Each year the Trust provides over $120,000 in grants to a variety of charitable organisations, but due to the growing demands on social services since Covid-19, they have started giving one-off donations.
“We’re acutely aware of the growing need for food services so wanted to be able to help them with a donation,” trust chair Gwenny Davis says.
“By giving a donation, they can allocate it in the best way they see fit to meet their needs and their service users’ needs without the encumbrances that grants can sometimes have.”
With the cost of living biting deeper, requests for food assistance have jumped significantly this year.
Gwenny says they have visited a number of the food charities in the region and were impressed with their services and the wide range of users they looked after.
“The closure of Kai with Love will be putting immense pressure on the other providers, so we wanted to be able to support them to step up.”
Anton Drazevic from the Nelson Environment Centre/Kai Rescue says many of their recipient groups are struggling to put food on the table.
“This has the knock on effect of kids not being able to concentrate in class. Our food goes to youth centres, schools and kindergartens to ensure that kids can be in the right state of mind to learn.
“Many of our recipient groups are able to offer wrap around services such as budgeting advice and counselling. But you can't access help if you are hungry. Kai is the connector - it brings people into these organisations and once they are fed they can focus on getting their lives back on track.”
The Trust has previously given to Kai with Love, Fifeshire Foundation, Te Korowai Trust, Nelson Tasman Pasifika Trust, Mohua Social Services and Whanake Youth.
