While thousands of New Zealanders gather around their own tables for Christmas today, close to 600 people have celebrated with delicious kai at the Auckland City Mission.
Auckland City Mission kaihautū manutaki Helen Robinson says volunteers welcomed people through their doors at Home Ground in Hobson Street serving roasted chicken, ham and vegetables, desserts from a dedicated dessert bar and indoor food truck-style stations serving sweet treats.
It’s an annual event where volunteers work for weeks prior. This year is Robinson thirteenth year and she says it has been the most challenging for people who receive support due to the cost of housing and high numbers of people struggling to find employment.
“The lack of affordable housing has hit many people. And then secondly, in terms of food, there’s just not enough money coming in. So the mission genuinely struggles to keep up with the level of demand, and certainly this Christmas, we haven’t been able to so it’s incredibly sobering and again, poignant.”
In the lead-up to Christmas, Auckland City Mission distributed 4,000 food parcels and 30,000 Christmas presents through partnerships with marae including Ngā Whare Waatea Marae and Papakura Marae. Each parcel provides enough food to feed a family of four for several days.
Robinson says working alongside marae allows support to be delivered closer to where people live, reducing transport costs and barriers to access.
“Each of those communities do very, very good work in their communities and we provide a significant amount of food for them to then distribute. We know that at both [marae] that there’s all kinds of other services that people are being provided when they come in for kai and obviously it’s just closer to home, so, so much easier and less expensive for people.”
Robinson says Māori are disproportionately affected by housing insecurity and food hardship.
“It’s certainly very clear that houselessness and food insecurity is a direct result of colonisation. So yes, we are doing simply what we can to meet the immediate needs and then really work across our country to actually say there has got to be a much better way to do this.”
While the Auckland City Mission responds to immediate needs, Robinson says the long-term goal is for a future where every person in Aotearoa has a home and enough kai, making emergency support unnecessary.
“So Christmas Day is very poignant here at the mission. It’s a real celebration of the generosity and the goodness of people and also a day where a dream is born really, that every person in New Zealand has a home and that every person in New Zealand has enough kai and actually doesn’t need the kind of support that the or that we offer here at the mission.”
