Visitors: No visitors in this meeting.
Venue: The meeting was held at Tauranga club on Devonport road.
Introduction
Lynda (President) welcomed all members to the meeting. She also welcomed our guests from Tauranga community food bank board. Maria Lauchlin and Sarah Burns. She then went on to welcome some of the members that are back to the club Ron, Paul Balcastor and Rod Large.
Colonel Warren Banks was then congratulated and applauded by all members for his Black Belt that he achieved on the previous weekend. Warren Banks, who happened to have the belt on him by chance, then showcased it to the members who applauded his achievement.
Notices
Wayne: Big thank you for all the participants who came for the quiz night. It was a great success and loads of fun. He then tested people’s memories from the night and was pleasantly surprised by the retention of knowledge by the club members.
Dave McDonald and Indeevar : The New Generation committee pitched for more Christmas puddings and encouraged for more orders. Thanks you all for the wonderful orders for the Christmas puddings.
If you have placed an order please make the payment to:
$23 per pudding
Acc. Number: 02-0466-0146239-00
Reference: First name + CP. For example Indeevar CP.
CP is acronym for Christmas pudding.
Lynda Burch: Larissa’s meal roster: we have 2-3 gaps that need filling. Please come forward to help out Larissa who is on recovery path. Thank you all for your kind support.
Kathy Webb: Next week we will have emergency services food bank drive. Papamoa drive is complete and Otumoetai and lakes is now upcoming. If you want to make a donation please put the food on the mailbox. Routes will be mailed through the mailer by Kathy. Please see the routes and support the cause.
Michelle: Extended her gratitude for Wayne and Ray Scott for their efforts to organise and conduct the quiz night which was a great success.
Birthdays: Erica Jackson on the 1st of December and Dave McConnochie on the 2nd of December.
James Ross introduced the speaker.
Simon Beaton and the origins of his accent.
Simon did the food bank presentation and started by introducing the fellow trusties who came as guests.
Food bank was started 32 years ago which previously was run by churches who decided to come together and start the food bank.
Some numbers: Food bank has assisted over 6000 household in the last 12 months. Fed 70,000 people and over 200,000 meals.
Michelle and Simon also volunteer to deliver food to people who are unable to come and collect it themselves.
Where does it come from: We get a lot of generous donations. Pat and his wife donated food worth $500. There are also donations from New world, Pak n Save and other vendors. Interestingly we also had a couple of packs of condom packets donated. Recently we also had a family trust donated $5,000 to the food bank.
Farmers Auto has also been a great supporter of the food bank. Earlier we had a old Fiat van and was a manual vehicle ended up with a burnt clutch. As we were saving up for the new vehicle, a repair job was needed on the old Fiat. Interestingly the Farmer Auto village owner and Volks Wagon got together and offered us a new Vehicle for an extraordinary price. It was an automatic vehicle. In essence, the Tauranga community has been extremely generous.
We also get grants from trusts and other organizations such as TECT, Tauranga City council, Lotto New Zealand and now the Ministry of social development. Cash money is welcomed as it covers the operational costs. We also have companies donate their time and other resources including human recourse. One of the things bought from cash grants was a forklift.
Maria (our guest) is our treasurer. Simon shared the graph of the resources available. It includes money in the bank and food in the warehouse. Currently if all donations stopped completely, we have food for next 19 months.
To reduce waste food, recently we opened a new store for people to walk in do the shopping themselves using the point system. Clients we have currently in the walking shopping list are from bay financial mentoring.
Emergency services collecting food in different districts is also part of the food bank drive. It is successful as kids are always attracted to the sirens and light and parents kind of have to give something. Its great marketing.
Schools appeal: Every school in our area collect and donate. Boys college and Bethlehem college are certainly the best performers.
We also work closely with good neighbourhood, another charity that provides food for the people in need. There was a push to combine both the charities however it was not possible as we have different funding models.
During the hiring process, Michelle and Simon were given extensive training for the job of delivery drivers, especially for not judging the circumstances of people in need. When asked shall we start next week? Answer was no! you can start now!!
Who are our clients: People from all walks of life such as
- People unable to work for some reason.
- Victims of domestic violence.
- Business failure. Recent case of a real estate agent. We thought he was a donator, however he was there to have his first experience to access food bank services.
- Inflation is also a significant cause of people landing with us.
We get clients that are referred to us from 100 referring agency such as salvation army and churches. We can give out 4 parcels per referral and each food parcel can last 4 days. It is proper food assessed for nutritional value. After this, they are given budgetary advice through agencies to help them back to track. We have noticed that we have large number of new clients coming in and a surge in repeat clients that have stopped using our services but now have come back for help.
We currently have 60 volunteers to help with different operational needs and as always we need more! Please give Simon your name and how you can help. Please come forward in good numbers and let us make someone’s Christmas a good Christmas.
Question: Why does the Food Bank does not merge with Good Neighbour.
A: It is due to differing health and safety policies and funding models.
Speaker thanks: Neil thanked Simon for his presentation and applauded his great speaking ability and keeping people entertained. He also mentioned that we have a strange patterns where poorer neighbourhoods donate more than the more well off ones. Nearly 10 percent of the population needs help.
Sargent session:
James Ross
James did the social media sweep on club members.
- Warren Banks: All the information but missed the Ferrari
- Bob: Great club of Bugatti doing 400 kms/hr. He also found a map where Argentina was highlighted saying it’s a reasonable cold country and is in fact right next to Chile.
- Pat Taylor: Caption saying if anyone needs to learn how to take a selfie I am your man with a photo of him with screen partly covered with his hand.
- Cathy Webb: Shared a post saying nobody told me that when you get a husband, the ears come separately.
- Lynda Burch: Photos of her travels to Europe and other great places.
- Greg: Few interesting cartoon such as Mother and daughter sitting in the field. Daughter, looking at the rainbows said, mum where do the bad rainbows go. The mother replied, prison dear, it’s only a life sentence.
- Buddy: Vege beds and boars shot with a big guns
- Simon and Michelle: Ross did not realise that they were such good cyclist. After doing a 40 kms in Europe, Simon shared, “I am worried about the next day, I hope I can make it. The next trip was 70 kms”
Parting thought: Glenn Dougal
Reflecting upon his conquest during the quiz night he quoted: Winners are losers who tried one more time.