Neighbourhood Support volunteers turn out for food drives

Western Bay of Plenty Neighbourhood Support volunteers turned out in droves to help collect for the Emergency Services Food Drives in late November and December.

Neighbourhood Support is a community-led charity building safe, supportive and connected communities throughout Aotearoa. In the Western Bay, there are 14,500 member families, with Street Groups operating in most streets around the city, Mount Maunganui and Te Puke.

The aim is to help neighbourhoods create a sense of belonging, respect and inclusion for everyone. We’re part of a national movement bringing people together to create safe, resilient and connected communities, with more than 200,000 members throughout the country.

We’re all volunteers, apart from a couple of part-time managers and database manager, from Board members and Area Coordinators to Street Coordinators who look after their own neighbours. Our partners include Police, Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Civil Defence, with support from funders like Tauranga City Council, TECT and BayTrust.

Throughout this year we’ve been involved in numerous events – Flurofest, helping get the Ōmanu Community Gardens underway, running several 3 Steps for Life sessions with St John, appointing a new Coordinator to manage Tauranga and Tauranga South, and running a successful Sirens and Services event with Haeata Community Trust in Gate Pā to bring all emergency services together – and hand out free ice creams.

Every year we work with Emergency Services to run the Christmas Food Drives in Pāpāmoa, Mount Maunganui, Pyes Pā and Ōtumoetai. Our members love helping with this event, collecting thousands of food donations to stock up the Salvation Army Food Bank and Pāpāmoa Food Hub.

This year’s collections were even more successful than ever, with generous families giving boxes of food items to help struggling families.

Join us free at Join as Individual | WBOP NS, or volunteer to become a Street Coordinator in your area – we’re always looking for more good people to help out, and it’s a great way to get to know your neighbours!